Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Butler, M. D., Frank 1888 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com June 18, 2009, 1:10 am Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company DR. FRANK BUTLER, M. D., who is engaged in the general practice of medicine in Portland, is equipped beyond the ordinary training of a physician, being an expert X-ray operator, which has proven an invaluable aid to him in his professional work. He has been very successful in the treatment of diseases and has built up a large and remunerative practice. Dr. Butler was born on a farm in Whitman county, Washington, in 1888, and is a son of Orville and Mary (Lee) Butler. He comes of old pioneer stock, the family having crossed the plains in 1849. His paternal grandfather, Joseph Bradley Varnum Butler, was a native of Massachusetts, where he was reared and learned the trade of a brickmason. From his native state he went to Canada and thence to Illinois, where he established a brick yard. In 1849, with an equipment of three wagons, to each of which were hitched three yoke of oxen, he started across the plains, with his wife and three sons, Orville, N. L. and Henry. After locating in Illinois he had married Miss Elizabeth Ingalls. On their way across the plains they fell in with fifteen hundred soldiers, with whom they remained for protection against the Indians. Mr. Butler had constructed the beds of his wagons in the form of boats, and these they used in crossing streams too deep to ford. On reaching Oregon, they spent their first winter in Oregon City, and Mr. Butler built the first commercial brick flue in that place. From there he came to Portland and engaged in a mercantile business at the southeast corner of First and Alder streets. Two or three years later he moved to Cincinnati, now Eola, where he established a store, and also freighted between that place and Portland. Later he settled in Monmouth, where he had a store and also engaged in farming living there until his death, which occurred in 1879. His wife died about 1899. After coming west, six more children were born to them, Mrs. Jane Ground, Mrs. Portia Mulkey, Mrs. Lydia Kuhn, Mrs. Dilla Fenton, Mrs. Lavilia Boothby and J. B. V. Orville Butler was born in Pittsfield, Pike county, Illinois, on August 9, 1840, and was about nine years of age when he accompanied his parents on their migration to Oregon. He received his education in the public schools of that day and remained with his father, assisting in farming and the operation of the stores, until 1874, when he went to eastern Oregon and engaged in farming on his own account. Later he conducted a mercantile business in Cheney for about seventeen years. He then returned west and located south of Salem, where he was engaged in farming until he retired from active business and moved to Monmouth, where his death occurred May 27, 1927. He married Miss Ellen Murphy and they had three children, Dr. O. D., who died September 26, 1926; C. W., of Independence, Oregon; and Nellie, who is the wife of J. F. O'Donnell, of Portland. The mother died about 1870, and subsequently Mr. Butler married Miss Mary Lee, who was born near Dallas, Polk county, Oregon, and is now living at Monmouth. She is a daughter of Nicholas and Sarah (Hopper) Lee, the former having been a Methodist preacher and a relative of the Jason Lee family. He came to Oregon in 1847. To Mr. and Mrs. Butler were born four children, namely; Sarah, is the wife of I. L. Smith, of Monmouth, Oregon; V. L., of El Center, California; J. Dean, of Oak Grove, Oregon; and Frank. Frank Butler was about three years old when his family moved to Linn county, Oregon, and five years later they moved to a farm near Independence. He received a public school education and entered the State Normal School at Monmouth, from which he was graduated in 1906. He then worked for awhile in the mines in Idaho, and in 1907-08 took postgraduate work at the normal school. He took up the study of medicine at Willamette University, completing his professional training at the University of Oregon from which he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He served as interne at the Emanuel Hospital in Portland, after which he located in Spokane, Washington, where he was engaged in active practice until 1916. He was thereafter at the sanitarium at Hot Lake, Oregon, until 1918, when he enlisted in the United States Medical Corps. He specialized in X-ray work and was so engaged while with his division in France. On his return to this country he was honorably discharged and then located in Portland, where he has since been engaged in the general practice of medicine. In 1915, in Portland, Dr. Butler was united in marriage to Miss Agnes J. Hoefs, of Jacksonville, Oregon, and they have one son, Lee Frank, now six years of age. The Doctor is a Mason and a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the American Legion and the Columbia Club, and also belongs to the Portland Academy of Medicine, the Multnomah County Medical Society, the American Radio Society and the Pacific Coast Radio Society. The Doctor is deeply interested in whatever tends to promote the prosperity of his city or county and gives his support to all worthy moral and benevolent causes. His able and efficient professional work, his sterling character and his genial and affable manner have combined to win for him the sincere esteem and good will of all who know him. Additional Comments: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, Pages 887-888 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/butlermd789gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 6.0 Kb