Judge Thomas Booker Butler, Smith County, TX

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Copyright.  All rights reserved.
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Submitted by Leroy Booker Butler, leroybutler@hotmail.com 
30 May 2001
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Title: A History of Texas and Texans
By: Frank W. Johnson
Publisher: American Historical Society
Date: 1914

Judge Thomas B. Butler is president of Guaranty State Bank Of Tyler, a
successful businessman and retired member of the bar of Smith county. 
He is one of the few self-made men of modern times whose life has been 
devoted to affairs wholly within his county, and he has demonstrated a 
many-sidedness in business and professional channels that marks his 
peculiarly successful career, A native of Smith county, his life is an 
open book to the people in this section of the state, and few there 
are more worthy of the generous measure of esteem and confidence that 
is bestowed upon Judge Butler.

Born in the Starrville community of Smith county, seventeen miles east 
of Tyler, the birth of Thomas Booker Butler occurred on January 14, 
1867. His pioneer ancestor settled there about 1853, coming from 
Chamber county, Alabama, and the resultant prosperity has led the 
name of Butler well over the face of East Texas. James Wiley Butler 
is the father of Judge Butler, and he was for many years Deputy 
United States Clerk of the Tyler district. He was the son of William
Booker Butler, who passed life as a farmer, and died in the Starrville 
neighborhood where he had established his family. The family is a most 
interesting one to contemplate from a biographical standpoint and some 
few details concerning the ancestry of the subject are not amiss at 
this juncture. William Booker Butler was born in Virginia (sic) and 
came of ancestry, who, it is believed, settled in that commonwealth 
from the state of Virginia. He was the son of Samuel Butler, and was
born in 1799. His education was of the rural type, and while in his 
twenties he married Elizabeth Downs (?). He died in 1872 his widow 
surviving him until about 1880. She was six years his junior and 
with him was a member of the Baptist church. During the Civil War 
period William B. Butler avowed his allegiance to the union and
advocated the settlement of the political differences under the flag, 
and for these utterances his life was threaten and his influence in 
his community undermined. His early political allegiance was with the 
Whigs, and when that organization disappeared he choose an independent 
stand rather than follow in the wake of the party whose leaders had 
conspired previously against his life. Although regarded as an enemy 
of the South during the Rebellion, it is a fact few avowed 
secessionistsfurnished more sons and better soldiers in support of the 
Confederate cause than he did.

The issue of William Booker and Elizabeth Butler were as follows: Mary, 
who married three husbands and by them reared children, namely: Elias 
Ivey: Dr. James Wilcoxen; and John A. Powell. Jesse S. Butler served 
in General Walker's division of the Trans-Mississippi Department of 
the Confederate Military establishment during the Rebellion; he spent 
his subsequent life as a farmer and married Mary Lott, dying later in 
Smith county. William Booker Butler, Jr. was a soldier in the same 
command.  He devoted his later life to farming activities, and now 
lives in Troup, Texas. He married M. Black. Levi Thomas Butler 
enlisted for service in the Confederate army in Copiah county, 
Mississippi and was killed at the battle of Gettysburg; James Wiley
later became the father of Judge Butler; Alphonso F. was also a 
Confederate soldier for a brief period before the close of the war and 
is now a merchant farmer and banker in Winona, Texas where he is 
married to Carrie Dean. Robert Henry Clay is a retired lawyer and a 
Smith county farmer and is married to Ella Gray.

James Wiley Butler enlisted in May, 1862, in Company G, under Captain 
B.B. Long, part of Col. O.M. Robert's Second Texas Infantry, and served 
in Randall's Brigade of Gen. Walker's Division in the Trans-Mississippi 
Department. His first skirmish was at Burbow, Louisiana, and his real 
engagements were at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill and Jenkins Ferry. Long 
and rapid marches up and down the Mississippi River from New Orleans 
to Vicksburg and across the state characterized the activities of the 
command so strongly that the Federals named them "Walker's Greyhounds". 
The troops finished service in Texas after the surrender of Lee, and 
disbanded near Hempstead in June, 1865. Mr. Butler was offered a 
Lieutenant's commission when he entered the army, but he concluded to 
remain in the service as a private. He passed through the entire war
period without being captured or wounded.

Upon taking up the civil life once more Mr. Butler resumed the vocation 
of a farmer to which he had been trained in his youth, and he continued 
therein until his election to the office of Sheriff of Smith county in 
1870 and 1872. He served those four years and returned to his rural 
calling for another four years. He then returned to office, being
reelected sheriff in 1880 and 1882. In 1884 he retired to take up civil 
life once again and engaged in the grocery business in Tyler, soon 
after which he was elected city marshal of the town, in which capacity 
he served four years. After leaving that service he was appointed 
Deputy United States Marshal by A.J. Dickerson, and served through his
administration and under Marshal John Grant until 1902, when he was 
appointed United States Court Clerk to fill a vacancy caused by death. 
He served as clerk under the consolidation of the various offices 
under one head, when he was made Deputy Clerk for the Tyler Division 
of the Federal Court, and he has held that office since until the 
present time. He was also appointed United States Commissioner of this 
district about that time, and holds that office today.

On December 20, 1866, Mr. Butler was married to Miss Sallie F. Holt, a 
daughter of Thomas S. Holt, one of the settlers of Smith County and a 
farmer. Mrs. Butler passed away in 1882 and her three surviving 
children are: Judge Thomas B. of this review, Miss Bertha Butler,
and Lee Butler. In October 1884, Mr. Butler married Mrs. Mary Deweese, 
a daughter of Carey Askew, and the children of this union are 
Elizabeth, the wife of J.N. Bischoff, chief engineer of the Cuban 
central railroad at Sagua la Grande, Cuba, and Clarence Butler who is
in service of the same road. Mr. Butler is a Royal Arch Mason, is Past 
Chief Patriarch of the Tyler Encampment of Oddfellowship and Past Grand 
Patriarch of the Texas Encampment of the Order.

Judge Thomas B. Butler was educated in the public schools, finishing 
his education in the Tyler schools. He chose the profession of law for 
his life work, and without college training, prepared himself for his 
admission to the bar in the offices of Hogg and Marsh, and was their 
student when these attorneys went to Austin, the former as Attorney 
General of the state and the latter as his assistant. Judge Butler was 
formally admitted to the bar before Judge McCord in 1887 and began the 
practice of his profession alone. He subsequently became a member of 
the firm Finley, Marsh, & Butler, when the former was appointed to the
bench continued as a member of the firm Marsh & Butler until his own 
appointment to the bench of Smith county as county judge in 1894. 
Judge Butler served in this capacity for one term and then resumed his 
private practice. He became a partner of Mr. Lasseter as one of the 
firm Butler & Lasseter, and subsequently, with the addition of his 
brother, Lee, the firm became Butler, Lasseter & Butler. Judge Butler 
was removed from this firm in 1902 by the actions of Governor Sayer, 
who appointed him to the bench of the district court of the Seventy 
Judicial District. He served the few remaining months of an unexpired 
term and again sought his law offices for the further prosecution of 
his profession, entering into partnership with Judge J.W. Fitzgerald 
under the name Fitzgerald & Butler, and he is now a member of the 
firm Fitzgerald, Butler & Bullock, but does not give the law business 
his personal attention.

In February, 1910, Judge Butler retired from active law practice and 
turned his attention to business affairs, which lately had been calling 
for more and more of his attention. He had demonstrated his success as 
a dealer and trader, and had amassed, chiefly through the medium of 
real estate, a competency sufficient to permit him to engage in 
financial pursuits. He accordingly organized the Guaranty State Bank 
of Tyler, with a capital of $100,000 and was elected president of the
 bank. W.D. Swann and A.P. Moore were chosen as vice-presidents and 
J.D. Shelton was made cashier. To the direction of the affairs of this
well established institutions Mr. Butler is giving much of his bust 
life, and the bank enjoys a solid reputation in Smith County. In 
addition to his banking interests, Judge Butler is president of 
Burk-Walker Furniture Company, owns a controlling interest in the 
Tyler Courier-Times, a daily and weekly newspaper in Tyler, is 
president of Butler-Cain Hardware Company of Terrell, Texas, is a 
director of the East Texas Investment Company and the Commercial Club 
of Tyler, all of which would indicate something of his importance and
activity in the industrial and commercial world. Judge Butler is a 
Democrat and a member of the First Baptist Church.

On December 26, 1889, Judge Butler was united in marriage, in Tyler, 
with Miss Sallie Cain, a daughter of Robert M. and Carrie Cain, early 
settlers from Alabama. The issue of Judge and Mrs. Butler are Carrie 
Lee, Emma Eloise and Thomas Jr.