This contains a transcription of the John F. Butler, M. D. of Chesterfield, NH biography from Biographical Review Volume XXIII: Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens of Cheshire and Hillsboro Counties, New Hampshire, Biographical Review Publishing Company, Boston, 1897.
Pages 21-22
JOHN F. BUTLER, M. D., the well-known physician and surgeon of Chesterfield, Cheshire County, N. H., and a veteran of the Civil War, was born in Marlow, N. H., June 14, 1831, son of Jonathan and Martha (Russell) Butler. His great-grandfather, William Butler, settled in that part of Gloucester, Mass., which became known as Butler’s Point, and is now included in the town of Essex. He later removed to Lyndeboro, N. H., where he passed the rest of his days. He was married late in life, and the maiden name of his wife was Sarah Perkins. She lived to be ninety-two years old. William and Sarah Butler had three sons, Jonathan, William, and Jacob, all of whom served in the Revolutionary War. Jacob, who was taken prisoner, died of small-pox while in captivity in Nova Scotia; and William, who became a captain, died at sea.
Jonathan Butler, Dr. Butler’s grandfather, was born in Ipswich, Mass., in 1752. He learned the blacksmith’s trade, and in 1777 settled in Lyndeboro, N. H., where he died December 5, 1844, aged ninety-two years. In 1778 he married Lois Kidder, by whom he had three sons and nine daughters.
Jonathan Butler, second, eldest son of Jonathan, first, and father of Dr. John F. Butler, was born in Lyndeboro. When a young man he settled upon a tract of wild land in Marlow, in the northern part of Cheshire County, where he cleared a farm and spent his active years in agricultural pursuits. He died July 19, 1843, aged fifty-eight years. His wife Martha, whom he married in 1807, was a daughter of Nathaniel Russell, a mechanic and a hotel-keeper of Wilmington, Mass. Nathaniel Russell responded to the call to arms made by the midnight rider from Boston on the night of the 18th of April, 1775; and, gun in hand, he followed on to Concord. He served all through the Revolutionary War, and was discharged in the Carolinas. Mrs. Martha Russell Butler died January 24, 1856. She and her husband were born the same year. They were the parents of eleven children, all born in Marlow, named as follows: Nathaniel R.; Martha; Susan; Mary; William; Sarah Jane; Lucinda; Jonathan Wesley; John F., the subject of this sketch; and two others who died in infancy. Nathaniel R. Butler was early in life engaged in the shoe business, and also interested in lumbering. He later went to Ashburnham, Mass., to rest, and recover his health, and while there took up farming. He afterward made a specialty of poultry-raising, supplying eggs and chickens to hotels at good prices; and he accumulated considerable property. He died in Gardner, Mass. Susan Butler became the wife of John Ramsey, and died a few years after marriage. Mary wedded Francis Buss, a manufacturer of Acworth, N. H. William always resided in Marlow, and was an exceedingly active business man. He became a successful cattle and real estate dealer, and acquired a small fortune. The last twenty years of his life were passed in retirement. His widow survives him. Sarah Jane was the second wife, and is now the widow, of John Ramsey, late of Orange, Mass., who was the original manufacturer of the Ramsey sleigh, and who built the Mansion House in Orange. Jonathan Wesley Butler died unmarried at the age of twenty-five years.
John F. Butler was but twelve years old when his father died, and was therefore thrown mainly upon his own resources at an early age. With the assistance of his mother he managed to acquire a fair education, and during his vacations he taught district and writing schools. He was fitted for college at the Marlow Academy and at Tubbs Union Academy in Washington, N. H.; but, instead of entering upon a classical course, he began the study of medicine with Dr. Marshall Perkins, of Marlow. He later attended lectures at Dartmouth College. He entered the Tremont Medical School, Boston, in 1853, and in 1854 was graduated at the Harvard Medical School, where he was a classmate of ex-Mayor Samuel A. Green, of Boston. He was among the eighteen out of a class of twenty-seven who passed a favorable examination, and his diploma was signed by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. While in Boston he had the advantage of practical observation in the different hospitals, and thus equipped he began the practice of medicine and surgery in Chesterfield. During the Crimean War Dr. Butler was offered an opportunity to enter the Russian service, but, seeing the disadvantages that an American must labor under in such a position, he declined. In the spring of 1864 he was commissioned by Governor Andrew Assistant Surgeon of the Thirty-ninth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, then attached to the Fifth Army Corps. While serving in front of Petersburg, he contracted fever and ague, and had a thirty days’ furlough, after which he returned to duty. He also served as Surgeon of the Sixteenth Maine and the Eighty-eighth Pennsylvania Regiments. After the war he resumed his practice here, and his professional labors have since extended over a wide territory. Not only his skill both as a physician and surgeon, but his kindly disposition and deeds of charity commend him to the esteem and confidence of his fellow-townsmen.
In 1857 Dr. Butler married for his first wife Julia, daughter of the Rev. Silas Quimby, of Lebanon, N. H. She died in 1861, and her infant died soon afterward. In 1863 the Doctor wedded for his second wife Celia A. Brewster, daughter of John L. Brewster, of Lowell, Mass., and, like his first wife, a graduate of the New Hampshire Conference Seminary.
Politically, Dr. Butler is a Democrat. He represented Chesterfield in the legislature during the years 1874 and 1875, and served upon the committee on the Insane Asylum. He served on the School Board for twelve terms, and for many years was Moderator at town meetings. He is still actively engaged in his professional work, and has a lucrative practice.