Ohio History Journal

Reviews, Notes and Comments       193

owners through whose hands it has passed in the long

period since it was originally written. They have re-

corded in it quaint receipts, accounts and other matters

of little or no value today. For a time it appears to have

been used as a copy-book. It is, however, in spite of

these insertions, a venerable, interesting and legible

document, which throws strong sidelights on the activi-

ties of the frontier army during this interesting period.

 

JOSEPH GREEN BUTLER, JR.

Joseph Green Butler, Jr., pioneer iron manufacturer,

philanthropist and author, died at his home in Youngs-

town, Ohio, December 19, 1927. Had he lived two days

longer, he would have been 87 years old. He was born

at Temperance Furnace, Mercer County, Pennsylvania,

December 21, 1840. He was the son of Joseph Green

and Temperance (Orwig) Butler. His father was an

iron manufacturer and blast-furnace expert. His mother

was descended from one of the oldest, families in Berks

County, Pennsylvania.

The Butler family lineage has been traced to those

bearing that name who went to Ireland in the reign of

Henry II. The family emigrated to America in the

eighteenth century and seven members had commissions

in the American Army during the Revolution.

Col. Thomas Butler, a close friend of George Wash-

ington, was a charcoal contractor and furnished fuel for

furnaces in Pennsylvania. His son, Joseph, was an iron

master at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. His son, Joseph

Green Butler, Sr., followed the iron business for some

time in central Pennsylvania. Later he moved west-

ward and operated a furnace at New Wilmington, Penn-

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194     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications sylvania, succeeding William McKinley, Sr., father of President McKinley, as manager. Joseph Green Butler, Jr, was a third son and was

JOSEPH GREEN BUTLET, JR. one year old when the family moved to Niles, Ohio. He spent most of his boyhood there, attending the village school with William McKinley, afterward president of the United States. The two were intimate and lifetime

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Reviews, Notes and Comments       195

friends. In their boyhood days, while in the Mahoning

River, young Butler is said to have rescued William

McKinley, when he was on the verge of drowning.

At the age of fifteen, Mr. Butler entered a store in

Niles, as clerk, but soon afterward became a shipping-

clerk in the iron-works of James Ward and Company.

He was promoted to financial manager, a position which

he held from 1858 to 1863. He was with Hale and

Ayer, of Chicago, from 1863 to 1866. In the latter

year, he became manager of the Girard Iron Company,

Girard, Ohio, and was associated with Ohio's War Gov-

ernor, David Tod, William Ward and William Rich-

ards. They built the first blast-furnace, in the Mahon-

ing Valley, to be equipped with a closed top, and con-

ducted the business for twelve years. At the end of

this time, Mr. Butler sold his interests and became

manager of the Brier Hill Iron Company, Youngstown,

Ohio. This was a large and successful iron-making

establishment, operating blast-furnaces and mining coal

on a large scale.

Subsequently, Mr. Butler was prominently connected

with many manufacturing enterprises. He has prop-

erly been regarded as perhaps the most potent personal

influence in establishing the great iron industries of the

Mahoning Valley.

He was one of the organizers of the Ohio Steel Com-

pany, the first concern to make steel in the Mahoning

Valley. He was a director of the American Iron and

Steel Institute; president of the Portage Silica Com-

pany; vice president of the Brier Hill Steel Company;

chairman of the board of the Bessemer Limestone and

Cement Company; director of the Youngstown Sheet

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196      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

and Tube Company, Pennsylvania and Lake Erie Dock

Company, Cleveland and Mahoning Valley Railway

Company, Pittsburgh, Youngstown and Ashtabula Rail-

way Company, Pennsylvania and Ohio Light and Power

Company, Youngstown and Suburban Railway Com-

pany, the First National Bank and of numerous lesser

enterprises.

Mr. Butler took an active interest in politics. This

dated from his early years. He used to relate incidents

in the life of Governor Tod; and was present when the

latter received a telegram from Abraham Lincoln ten-

dering him the position of Secretary of the Treasury

of the United States, which office he declined. Mr.

Butler was a Republican. He was delegate to three

national conventions of that party the last of which was

held in Chicago, in 1920.

Mr. Butler is the author of a number of books writ-

ten in the later years of his life and devoted largely to

the history of the iron industry in the Mahoning Valley

and his contact with noted men and events covering the

interesting period of his lifetime. Following is a list of

his principal works:

Life of William McKinley, 1900; First Trip Across

the Continent, 1904; First Trip Abroad, 1906; Presi-

dents I Have Seen and Known, 1910; A      Journey

Through France in Wartime, 1917; Fifty Years of Iron

and Steel, 1917; History of Youngstown and the Ma-

honing Valley, in three volumes, 1921; and Recollections

of Men and Events -- an Autobiography, 1925.

The last-named was reviewed in the QUARTERLY of

July, 1925.

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Reviews, Notes and Comments          197

In his "Personal Reminiscences," which form the

concluding chapter of his History of Youngstown and

the Mahoning Valley, Vol. I, he tells how he got into the

iron business:

In 1857, James Ward, Sr., came into the company store at

Niles, where my father had charge, and told him that the ship-

ping clerk in the mill was "on a spree," and that he would have

to borrow one of the clerks until this man sobered up. Father

said: "There are three of them; take your pick of the lot." Mr.

Ward looked the boys over and chose me, and that was the way

I got into the iron business.

Mr. Butler contributed liberally of his wealth to

many enterprises and institutions. The National Mc-

Kinley Birthplace Memorial, in Niles, Ohio, is a monu-

ment to his public spirit and his devotion to his lifelong

friend. To the building of this memorial he gave freely

of his time and money, contributing to the endowment

fund alone an initial subscription of $100,000. His in-

terest in art extended over many years. His desire was

to establish in his home city an institution that should

continually foster and encourage a similar interest

among the rising generation. He erected, in the city

of Youngstown, an institution known as the Butler Art

Institute.  To this he contributed rare works of art

collected during his lifetime and, in his will, he left to

the Institute the large residue of his fortune, estimated

at more than one million dollars.

Through the years to come, the McKinley Memorial,

in Niles, and the Butler Art Institute, in Youngstown,

will attract an ever-increasing number of visitors to

these two cities.

He belonged to many associations -- industrial and

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198                Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

learned      and was a life member of the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society.

Joseph Green Butler, Jr., married Harriet Voorhes

Ingersoll, of Honesdale, Pennsylvania, January 10,

1866. Of this union were born Mrs. Blanche (Butler)

Ford, Mrs. Grace Ingersoll (Butler) McGraw, and Mr.

Henry A. Butler. The latter two survive. Mrs. Butler

died in 1921.

Mr. Butler was familiarly known as "Uncle Joe,"

and his wide circle of acquaintances and friends felt a

personal loss, when they learned that his death had

come on the eve of the celebration of his eighty-seven

years of life in the Mahoning Valley.

PROF. AZARIAH SMITH ROOT

A librarian of state, national and international repu-

tation died at his home in Oberlin, Ohio, Sunday, Octo-

ber 2, 1927. He was born at Middlefield, Massachu-

setts, February 3, 1862. He was the son of Solomon F.

and Anna (Smith) Root.

He came as a student to Oberlin College, Oberlin,

Ohio, from Dalton, Massachusetts, in 1879. He was

graduated from the College with the degree of A. B., in

1884, and received his A. M. degree in 1887. He was a

law student at Boston University from 1884 to 1885;

cataloguer in the Oberlin College Library from 1885 to

1886, and student at Harvard Law School from 1886

to 1887 and at the University of Gottingen, Germany, in

1898 and 1899. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

For forty years Professor Root was librarian of the

Oberlin College Library; and was, for some time, an

annual lecturer before the Library Schools of Columbia,

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