Daily Oklahoman, The
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
February 23, 1938, page 4
State Church Veteran Dies
Dr. M. L. Butler's Funeral today at Okmulgee
Okmulgee, Feb 22 -- Funeral services for Dr. M. L. Butler, 77
years old, pioneer Oklahoma Indian missonary and Methodist
minister, will be held here at 2 pm Wednesday.
Butler, came to Oklahoma from Arkansas in 1880 to join the
Indian territory mission conference of the Methodist church,
south, died Tuesday following a heart attack....
Mr. Butler served for 17 years as secretary of the Indian
mission conference. He ceased active work at Bristow three years
ago...
Survivors include his wife and three daughters, Mrs. John
Allen and Mrs. Ralph H. Ellison, Okmulgee and Mrs. E. P.
Kilgore, Oklahoma City.
Chronicles of Oklahoma
Vol 16, No. 2, June 1938, pages 261-266
Necrology
viewed 06-19-07
REVEREND MARCUS LAFAYETTE BUTLER, D.D.
1860-1938
The Reverend Marcus LaFayette Butler, son of William Edward
Butler, son of Thomas Paschal Butler, was a descendant of the
famous Butlers of the House of Ormonde, noblemen, warriors, and
conquerors.
Thomas Paschal Butler moved from Virginia to Oxford,
Mississippi, in 1839. His son, William Edward Butler, the father
of Marcus LaFayette Butler, was married to Miss Margaret White,
at Oxford, in the year 1859. They had eight children, Marcus
LaFayette being the eldest.
His mother was a native of North Carolina, born at Concord, a
daughter of Samuel G. and Catherine Russell White, who came to
the United States shortly before the birth of Margaret. Samuel
G. White belonged to the McGregor Clan.
Marcus LaFayette Butler was born July 5th, 1860, at Oxford,
Mississippi. His early childhood was spent amid the scenes of
destruction and horror of the Civil War and the cruelties and
injustices of the reconstruction days that followed. These made
a deep impression upon his childish mind and planted in his
young spirit a bitterness which took years of grace to efface.
However, there was a different environment in old Mississippi
for the young child. His father's people were religious of the
Baptist persuasion; his Mother was a Presbyterian of the pure
Scotch type, refined, cultured, and pious. She pointed his young
mind toward the greater men of the day
When he was twelve years of age his parents moved to Arkansas
and settled on a farm near Fort Smith. They lived a quiet useful
life rearing their family under such religious and social
conditions that prevailed in that section during the pioneer
days.
At fourteen years of age, on a September morn, he united with
the Presbyterian Church. His grandfather, then eighty-two years
of age, had never connected himself with the Church, but was so
impressed with the services and the reception of his young
grandson that on the afternoon of that day, he presented himself
and was received into the membership of the Presbyterian
Church....
While serving his first pastorate in the Indian Territory he
wooed and won the hand and heart of Helen Dougherty, a beautiful
and consecrated young woman whose mother's people had been
connected with the Presbyterian Missionary work among the
Cherokees in the Old Nation. They were married at Van Buren,
Arkansas, March 3, 1881. Throughout the entire years of service,
she was his faithful companion, sharing the burdens of hardships
of pioneer days, going with him to charges where the work was
hard and the stipend small, with cheerful heart and never a word
of complaint. Being a teacher by profession before she married,
she betimes, during their married life, taught school to help
meet the ever increasing high cost of living.
Three daughters came to bless their home. They are Mrs. Ralph
E. Ellison, of Okmulgee, Mrs. E. P. Kilgore, of Oklahoma City,
and Mrs. John L. Allen, of Okmulgee. The three daughters and
their mother survive.
Dr. Butler gave spiritual aid and comfort to people of all
classes and races during the political and social changes that
were constantly taking place in the Indian Territory.
When he came to the Indian Territory, there was a large
influx of white people into the Territory. This made important
changes both for Church and State. The political and social life
underwent constant change. The Five Civilized Tribes were
gradually losing their status as separate national entities, and
were being merged into one State under the government of the
United States. This, of course, made necessary the finest type
of statesmanship on the part of the political leaders of the
time.
The Bishops of the Church regarded him as a careful
administrator and good adviser. He numbered several of them
among his close personal friends. In his early ministry were
Bishop Duncan and Bishop Pierce; then came Bishops Hargrove,
Hendrix, Galloway, Morrison, Hoss, Mouzon, Moore and A. Frank
Smith. All of them gave him important assignments for work in
Oklahoma.
For twenty-one years, Brother Butler served his Conference as
Secretary, seventeen of them consecutively; he served on the
Conference Board of Missions
Among his last sermons, if not the very last sermon he
preached, was one to the Indian Mission Conference which was
held near Okmulgee in September, 1937. This sermon was heard by
a large congregation of
Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, Kiowa, and
Comanche Indians, together with a large number of white
preachers and laymen. Bishop A. Frank Smith, President of the
Conference, was in the audience.
Dr. Butler served fifty-five years in active service in the
ministry, fifty-three of them in Oklahoma. During the three
years and a fraction of his retirement, it can not be said that
he was inactive. He worked until the very last.
Dr. Butler went to the hospital on January 13th, 1938,
critically ill with a heart disease, so critical that he was
denied the visitation of even his closest friends. At five
o'clock in the morning of Februaray 22nd, 1938, his heart, weary
after long years of toil and burdened with many sorrows other
than his own, ceased to beat. His soul, cheered with precious
memories and crowned with honor and glory, joined the immortals
in heaven.
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