Susan A. (Barnhart) Butterworth

REED, HORN, BOOMER, GALLAGHER

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 2/22/2004 at 11:08:28

Mrs. Susan A. Butterworth, residing in Maquoketa, the daughter of a pioneer merchant of Jackson County, is the widow of the well-known Otis P. Butterworth. He was for many years actively identified with various intersts in this his native county, and in his death it sustained the loss of a useful, enterprising citizen, who had labored to further its financial prosperity.

Mrs. Butterworth was born in Mercer County, Pa., and is a daughter of Henry Barnhart, a native of Bucks County, Pa., and at one time a resident of this county. His father was born in the same State as himself, and was of German ancestry. Mrs. Butterworth's father was reared and married in Bucks County, Hannah Reed, likewise a native of the Keystone State, becoming his wife. After marriage he removed to Mercer County, and established himself in the mercantile business in Clarkesville, and had a branch store in Greenville, in after years his son managing that. He continued to reside in Pennsylvania until 1855, when he came to Iowa, starting with teams, and making the greater part of the journey in that manner. After his arrival he located in Andrew, and opened a store and engaged in the mercantile business. There were no railways at that time this side of the Mississippi, and he had to team all his goods from the river towns. Three years later he settled up his affairs in Andrew, and going to Missouri, after staying a few months in the village of Kirksville, Adair County, he bought a farm in that vicinity, and engaged in farming and stock-raising and dealing in stock until his death, accumulating in the meantime by shrewd dealings, industry and good management, a goodly amount of property. To him and his wife were born ten children. Matilda married John Horn, and they settled in Missouri, and were living there when the late war broke out. Mr. Horn served in the Union army, and after the war was robbed and murdered in Western Iowa. Henry went across the plains in 1849 to California, having chopped wood to earn the money to buy the oxen with which he made the trip. He has been very fortunate, and is now a millionaire. Isaac settled in Andrew, and later in Adair County, Mo.; John settled in the same county; Mary married and settled in Pennsylvania, and later in Kirkville, Mo.; Samuel and Abraham settled in Adair County, Mo.; James is a resident of Kansas.

The subject of this sketch was carefully reared by a thoughtful, wise mother to a useful, practical womanhood, and was thus fitted for the duties that devolved upon her in her married life. She was in her sixteenth year when she accompanied her parents to Iowa, and she made her home with them here and in Missouri until she was married March 22, 1860, to Otis P. Butterworth. Mr. Butterworth was born Nov. 7, 1838, in the town of Andrew, this county, and is recorded in the county history as the first white child born in that place. His father, Nathaniel Butterworth, was born in Bellingham, Norfolk Co., Mass., May 15, 1800. He was educated at Franklin, Mass., and in 1829 he emigrated to Chautauqua County, N.Y., and settled in the town of Mina. He was a resident of that place until 1838. The year before he had come to the Far West, as this part of the country was then considered, and had visited that part of the Territory of Wisconsin known as Iowa, making the entire journey hither, and his subsequent return to New York, on foot. He bought a claim to a tract of land near Andrew, and then, retracing his steps eastward, in 1838 he returned to this region with his family. He settled on his claim, and was a resident of Jackson Country from that time until his death. Politically, he was a Democrat, and a firm believer of its principles as expounded by Jefferson. He was a prominent and influential citizen of this section of Iowa. He was the first Postmaster of Andrew, and, besides filling various local offices of trust, served as Treasurer of Jackson County. The maiden name of his wife was Sarah Boomer. She was a native of Troy, Mass., and died Aug. 12, 1876.

Otis Butterworth received his early education in the village schools of his native town, and afterward became a student at the State Normal School in Andrew. After his marriage he engaged in farming nine years, and then kept a hotel at Andrew four years. His next venture was to open a hotel in Delmar, a village that had but just been started in Clinton County. He managed that hotel a year, and at the expiration of that time sold it, and, returning to Andrew, established himself in the mercantile business, which he carried on very successfully until his busy career was brought to an untimely close by death, Feb. 12, 1992, while he was still seemingly in the very prime of life. His death was regarded as a public loss, and many mourned it sincerely besides his family, to whom he had been a devoted husband and a tender father. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the A.O.U.W., and in politics followed in the footsteps of his sire and advocated the policy of the Democratic party. He filled various local offices of trust solely through merit, and maintained a high position in social and public life by strict attention to the highest principles of morality, honesty and integrity. Of his pleasant wedded life with our subject four children were born - Henry C., Wales Clinton, Mary Ellen, and Laura E. Mary married Charles Gallagher, and they have one child, Charles Clinton.

Mrs. Butterworth continued to reside in Andrew, after her husband's death, until 1885. In that year she bought her present home in Maquoketa, and has been a respected resident of that city ever since. She possesses to a large degree those personal attributes that mark a true womanly woman. She is charitable towards the needy, and her neighbors find her to be friendly and obliging. In her married life she was all to her husband that a cheerful, helpful, capable woman can be, and to her children she has been the best of mothers.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois.)