Springfield-Greene
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of Many of the Representative Citizens
STEPHEN E. BUTLER. It is no reflection when we say a man is a Hoosier; on the contrary it is a compliment, if the word is properly understood. All natives of the great state of Indiana are known as Hoosiers, and everyone knows that some of the greatest men of the nation have been born and reared on her soil, including presidents, vice-presidents, great statesmen, renowned army and navy officers and famous literary men and women. Stephen E. Butler, foreman of the tin shop of the reclamation plant in the South Side Frisco shops, Springfield, is a Hoosier although not yet belonging in the class of the mighty just enumerated, however, being yet a young man and possessing those traits that win success, one must necessarily predict for him a future of usefulness and more than average success.
Mr. Butler was born April 23, 1882, in Stark county, Indiana. He is a son of Austin D. Butler, a native of Ohio, and a carpenter by trade. He left his native state when a young man and located in Stark county, Indiana, where he remained until 1888, when he went to Helena, Montana, whither he removed his family the following year, and there his, death occurred in 1897 at the early age of forty-six years. He was a soldier in the Spanish-American war; however, contracting malaria typhoid in the Philippines not long after his enlistment, he was sent back home, having spent about a year in service. He was a member of Company L, First Montana Volunteer Infantry. Upon his recovery from the malaria typhoid he resumed his trade of journeyman carpenter, in which he was exceptionally skilled. As a soldier his comrades say he was brave, faithful and intelligent. His untimely death was by accident, having been drowned in the Missouri river near Stubbs Ferry, where he was working on a dredge. Politically he was a Democrat He belonged to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He belonged to the Methodist Episcopal church. His widow, who was known in her maidenhood. As Alice Miller, is now the wife of A. J. Lemkie, and they reside in Helena, Montana. Three children were born to her union with Mr. Butler, namely: Stephen E. of this sketch; Ethel married Earl B. Richardson, who is engaged in the retail drug business at Helena; Hazel married Charles H. Coar, superintendent of the telephone company at Minot, North Dakota.
Stephen E. Butler was seven years of age when his parents removed to Helena, Montana, and there he grew to early manhood and received a common school education; however, he left school when only fourteen years of age and began learning the trade of sheet metal worker there, serving a four years' apprenticeship. He worked with Jacob Rummell about six-years in that city, then went to the Pacific coast and the Northwest where he spent a year working as a tinsmith, after which he came to Kansas City, Missouri, and worked six months, then returned West and worked in Helena and Virginia City three and one-half years, one year of which time he was in business for himself as tinsmith. In March, 1910, he came to Springfield, Missouri, and worked a year for the Anslinger Sheet Metal Works, their took a position in the North Side Frisco shops in March, 1911, as journeyman tinsmith. On November 1, 1913, he was promoted to foreman tinsmith of the reclamation plant at the South Side shops, which position he still holds, and in this, as in all previous positions he is giving entire satisfaction, for he is not only an exceptionally highly skilled man in his line, but is energetic and understands handling those under him to good advantage.
Mr. Butler was married in July, 1907, to Dora Etta Burrell, a daughter of Charles and Mary (Codrey) Burrell, who reside on a farm near Conway, Missouri; Mrs. Butler grew to womanhood in Lane, Kansas, and received a common school education there and in California, where the family moved after leaving Kansas.
To our subject and wife one child has been born, Austin Elmer Butler, born July 18, 1911.
Politically Mr. Butler is a Democrat. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
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