Butcher, Charles Lincoln

BUTCHER, MC CLAIN

Posted By: Viv Reeves (email)
Date: 1/2/2006 at 21:01:46

From "History of Plymouth County, Iowa", edited by W. S. Freeman, Published in 1917 by B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc.:
Pages 107-110--
CHARLES LINCOLN BUTCHER

Charles Lincoln Butcher, one of the best-known and most substantial farmers of Sioux township, this county, is a native of the state of Missouri, but has been a resident of Plymouth county for the past quarter of a century. He was born on a farm in Harrison county, Missouri, October 9, 1864, son of Jehu and Fidella (McClain) Butcher, natives of the state of Ohio, whose last days were spent in Missouri.

Jehu Butcher was born in Jackson county, Ohio, and there grew to manhood and married Fidella McClain, who also was born in that county. Not long before the outbreak of the Civil War he moved with his family to Harrison county, Missouri, and there established his home on a farm of one hundred and seventy-five acres, on which he spent the rest of his life. During the Civil War he served as a member of the Home Guards in Missouri, devoted to the cause of the Union. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as was his wife, and their children were reared in the faith of that church. There were eight of these children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the fifth in order of birth, the others being as follow: Clara, who married Robert McNamee and lives at Mountain Grove, Missouri; John, a farmer, who died in Missouri; Jane, who is married and continues to live in Missouri; Amanda, who married Alexander Alder and lives at Berwell, Nebraska; Andrew, who died in infancy; Wesley, a farmer, who died at his home in Mound City, Missouri, in January, 1915, and Mary Letta, who married William Simons and lives at White Owl, South Dakota. The mother of these children died about the year 1871 and Jehu Butcher married, secondly, Mrs. Elizabeth Miller, who died without issue; whereupon he married Mrs. Mary Anna Bennett, to which union there was born one child, a daughter, Lulu, who married John Noble and lives in Missouri. Jehu Butcher died in 1879.

Reared on the home farm in Harrison county, Missouri, Charles L. Butcher obtained his schooling in the local schools of that neighborhood and remained at home until he was sixteen years of age, when he started out for himself, homesteading a tract of land in Cherry county, Nebraska, which he proved up and on which he remained for seven years, or until 1892, the year after his marriage, when he came to Iowa and settled on the farm of Mrs. Sophia J. Woodward, his wife's aunt, in Sioux township, this county, where he established his home and where he ever since has resided. In 1899 he sold his Nebraska land and bought a place of eighty acres in section 19 of Sioux township, adjoining Mrs. Woodward's farm, and has since been farming both places. Upon the death of Mrs. Woodward in 1911, her niece, Mrs. Butcher, inherited the Woodward acres and the Butchers are thus now the owners of a fine place of four hundred and forty acres in one body. On this tract Mr. Butcher has made all the present substantial improvements and for years has been engaged there in stock raising, in addition to his general farming, and has done very well. His specialty in the live-stock line is pure-bred Hereford cattle and Chester White hogs, keeping a herd of from fifty to one hundred of the former and from seventy-five to one hundred head of the latter. Mr. Butcher is a Republican, but has never been an aspirant for public office. Both he and his wife are members of the Church of Christ (Scientist), affiliated with the mother church in Boston.

It was on May 3, 1891, in Cherry county, Nebraska, that Charles L. Butcher was united in marriage to Nellie Sophia Jenkins, who was born at Shabbona Grove, in Dekalb county, Illinois, daughter of Dr. Joseph M. and Jennie M. (McInroy) Jenkins, the former of whom, years later, became a pioneer of this county and here spent his last days. Dr. Jospeh M. Jenkins was a native of the state of New York, born in Wayne county, February 16, 1838, son of Benjamin Jenkins and wife, the former of whom was a government surveyor. In 1846 Benjamin Jenkins and his family moved from New York to Kane county, Illinois, where Joseph M. Jenkins grew to manhood and for some years taught school, meanwhile studying medicine. In 1861, upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted for service in the Twenty-third Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and at one of the battles at Lexington, Missouri, was taken prisoner by the enemy. Upon being exchanged he continued his medical studies and in 1864 again entered the service of the Union army as assistant surgeon of the One Hundred and Thirty-fourth and the One Hundred and Fiftieth Regiments, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and remained thus detailed until on June 16, 1865, when he was placed in charge of the Port Hudson military hospital and there continued in service until his final discharge in July 1866. It was while serving as an army surgeon that Doctor Jenkins, on January 22, 1865, in Dekalb county, Illinois, was united in marriage to Jennie M. McInroy, who also was born in the state of New York, October 2, 1842, and upon the completion of his military service he began the practice of his profession at Shabonna Grove, where his wife, the mother of Mrs. Butcher, died on July 3, 1870. Doctor Jenkins then came to Iowa and homesteaded a tract of land near Sibley, where he also engaged in practice, and where on September 16, 1872, he married Mrs. S. M. Darby. Some time later he returned to his old home in Illinois and practiced there until his library was destroyed by fire in 1880, after which he returned to Iowa and came on up into Plymouth county, where he had purchased two hundred and fifty-five acres in 1870, this land being situated on the river in Sioux township, and there established a new home, remaining there, with the exception of three years spent near Merriman, in Cherry county, Nebraska, the rest of his life, his death occurring on January 30, 1894. Doctor Jenkins was an active Mason from the days of his young manhood and an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic, in the affairs of both of which orders he took a warm interest. He was a Republican and during his residence in Cherry county, Nebraska, served as a member of the board of county commissioners.

To Charles L. and Nellie Sophia (Jenkins) Butcher six children have been born, namely: Jennie Fidella, born in January 14, 1892, who died on January 23, 1892; Carrie May, May 9, 1894, who is now engaged in a store at Westfield, this county; Minnie Sophia, December 5, 1897, a student in the Westfield high school; Benjamin Franklin, April 3, 1899, also a student in the high school; Charles Joseph, January 12, 1904, and Clifford Ernest, September 20, 1906.

Mrs. Sophia J. Woodward, for many years one of the best-known and most influential residents of Sioux township, a sister of Dr. Joseph M. Jenkins and an aunt of Mrs. Butcher, was born in Wayne county, New York, November 13, 1829, the only daughter in the family of nine children born to her parents. She accompanied her parents to Illinois in 1846 and was married there on December 27, 1860, to Phineas B. Woodward, who died at Kaneville, Illinois, on March 4, 1875. Being without children of her own, when the wife of her brother, Doctor Jenkins, died, Mrs. Woodward took the orphaned daughter, Nellie, then but sixteen months of age and reared and educated her. Upon the latter's marriage to Mr. Butcher she continued to make her home with her aunt and this close companionship continued until the latter's death, a period of forty-two years, all told. In 1880 when Doctor Jenkins came to Plymouth county his sister, Mrs. Woodward, accompanied him and here she bought a tract of three hundred and sixty acres of land in Sioux township, the place now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Butcher, and there she made her home until 1888, when she went to Nebraska, where she lived for three years, at the end of which time she returned to her home in Plymouth county and there spent the rest of her life, her death occurring on March 29, 1911, she then being eighty-one years, four months and sixteen days of age. Mrs. Woodward was a woman of excellent education and much force of character and during her long residence in Plymouth county ever took a warm interest in the general affairs of the county, even taking an active part in political affairs, and for three or four years served as treasurer of Sioux township. For fifty-five years she was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and then became affiliated with the Church of Christ (Scientist) and died in that faith.