The Good, the Bad, the Butlers:: Story of a Texas Pioneer Family

By Charles L. Olmsted

Despite his challenges as a deaf-mute, Burnell Butler was one of those who dreamed of a better life in Texas. Lured by all the twenty-eighth state offered, Butler, his wife, twelve children, and seven slaves gambled big in 1852, migrating from Mississippi in covered wagons to the unknown prairies of Texas. It was there that the Butlers would begin a new chapter, fueled by their rugged, hard-working spirit.

Charles Olmsted, a former award-winning sports writer, relies on extensive research and anecdotes to chronologically capture the fascinating history of the Butler family. Beginning with a cattle drive during the Civil War, Olmsted details how Burnells son, William G. Butler joined in helping build the foundation for the multi-billion dollar beef industry, rode the Chisholm Trail with his family from the 1860s to the 1880s as part of the transformation to cattle cars on railroads, and often settled disputes with gunfights. Included are excerpts from letters, newspapers, and books as well as details from land purchases, proclamations, and real-life accounts.

The Good, the Bad, the Butlers shares the true story of a pioneer family as they built a new life in Karnes County, Texas, and attempted to survive all the challenges of living in a dangerous and dusty land.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jun 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491766149

Charles L. Olmsted

Charles L. Olmsted started his career as a sports writer for the Lake Charles American Press where he earned several Louisiana Sports Writers Association awards. Charles now divides his time between South Texas, South Louisiana, and South Korea.

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The Good, the Bad, the Butlers:

Story of a Texas Pioneer Family

Copyright © 2015 Charles L. Olmsted.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-6615-6 (sc)

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Dedication

The Butler Family has achieved success in many walks of life but at that foundation is the true story of the Butlers. It is about family.

Family is a big part of all of us. Therefore, I dedicate this book to my family: Annette, Alison, Keith, Debbie, Kristen, Philip, Kyle, Blake, Jacque, Marc, my late parents, Jack and Peggy, plus aunts, uncles, cousins, and in-laws along with my Korean family of Hyun Young, Yoon Yeong Jeong and Hyeanah.

And finally, during the preparation for this book, my friend and former boss Bobby Dower, editor of the Lake Charles American Press, died suddenly. He was like the big brother I never had but needed.

Table of Contents

List of Illustration

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Chapter One - Burnell Butler G.T.T.

Chapter Two - Building Up to War

Chapter Three - W.G. Butler Starts the Cattle Business

Chapter Four - The First Cattle Drives

Chapter Five - Cattle Rustling

Chapter Six - The Long Way Home

Chapter Seven - George Washington Butler and Marquis Lafayette Butler

Chapter Eight - Helena and the railroad

Chapter Nine - Daileyville

Chapter Ten - After the Shooting

Chapter Eleven - Back to Business

Chapter Twelve - Newton Butler

Chapter Thirteen - T.G. Butler

Chapter Fourteen - Progressing toward a New Century

Chapter Fifteen - W.G. Expands his Holdings

Chapter Sixteen - James Butler

Chapter Seventeen - Sykes Butler

Chapter Eighteen - W.G. Dies

Chapter Nineteen - Pleasant Burnell Butler

Chapter Twenty - W.G. Hemis Butler, Jr.

Chapter Twenty-one - The Philosophy of William G. Butler

Chapter Twenty-two - Brands

Chapter Twenty-three - Albert Brown Butler

Chapter Twenty-four - Daniel Webster Butler

Chapter Twenty-five - The Pioneer Daughters - Susan, Mary Ann, Ruth, Elizabeth and Hulda

Chapter Twenty-six - W.G.’s Daughters – Cora, Helen, Louisa Mabel

Chapter Twenty-seven - Later and Today

Appendix A - Butler Family Cemetery

Footnotes

Bibliography

List of Illustration

− Sarah Ann and Burnell Butler

− Adeline Burris Butler

− William Green Butler

− It took cowboys month to drive cattle north to markets

− Craig McAda’s rock home

− William S. Ruckman family

− George Washington and Marquis Lafayette Butler

− William G. Butler and Benjamin Franklin Burris

− J.J. Elder and W.G. Butler conducted business

− Dr. S.G. Dailey

− The Butler mansion

− Newton Butler

− Normie Butler and his wife, Elizabeth Bessie Wiseman Butler

− T.G. Butler and his dog Sandy

− T.G. Butler and his wife Mattie owned a spacious two-story house.

− Andrew Fulton married Amelia Winter

− Robert Fulton looks protective of his younger sisters Dode and Olive

− James Butler moved to Atascosa County after his wife Elizabeth Burris died

− John Woodward Butler married Martha Wilkinson

− Sykes Butler owned one of the earliest cars in Karnes County

− Sykes Butler was a community leader

− Betty Gay Kennedy lived on family land

− This family photo shows the Butler’s big front porch

− Pleas Butler

− Hemis Butler died in a sports car accident

− Hemis Butler was just four years older than his nephew Normie

− Ira Bright Butler stayed with the family after Hemis’ accident

− William G. Butler kept journals and records

− The death of Susan Collier Butler Johnson is still a mystery

− Susan Johnson married Dock Burris in one of the earliest unions

− Dock Burris was sentenced to death during the Civil War

− Judge John D. Newberry married Elizabeth Butler in 1858

− Mary Ann Fowler suffered different tragedies

− The Butler family is scattered around the southwest

− Cora Butler never married

− Louisa Mabel Butler Adams gave birth to three daughters and one son

− The three daughters would sometimes meet to go shopping

− Helen Butler Nichols filed claims with the U.S. government

− Charlotte Nichols was the family historian

− Bill and Betty Butler are long-time Karnes County residents

− Ted Butler started his political career in 1952

Foreword

Our Karnes County Butler family is fortunate in many ways. We are fortunate to have had ancestors with the courage to move to Texas in the mid 1800s and develop a legacy that remains strong today. We are fortunate to have family members who saved, recorded and shared much of that family history. Theda Semrod, Betty Gay Kennedy, Charlotte Nichols, Ted Butler, Martha Butler and others have all spent extensive amounts of time studying, collecting and documenting the people and events of that past time period.

I did not want all this information to be scattered and lost over time. I asked Charles Olmsted, co-author of Life and Death of Juan Coy, to write this book so there would be a permanent record for us and our future generations. I wanted a record of the excitement and opportunities as W.G. Butler and our family moved to Texas in a covered wagon, purchased land and developed the Butler ranches, drove thousands of head of cattle up the Chisholm and Western trails, established banks and routed the railroad through what is now Karnes City and Kenedy.

How they did all this without telephones, computers or trucks and trailers is remarkable. I so admire and respect their hard work and accomplishments. Hopefully, there are lessons to be learned as we face our modern day opportunities.

Our family history is celebrated and appreciated in many ways. We’ve had official family reunions every five years or so since the first in 1982. In 2002, a group of thirty-one of us gathered on Wofford’s Crossing to commemorate the 150th year since the Butler’s arrived in Karnes County. Photos from these reunions are saved and are strong reminders of the passing of time and the importance and love of family.

I think our greatest tribute to our family heritage is the number of us who still own and love the Butler ranch land we have inherited. Three ranches are listed in the Texas Family Heritage Ranch program. Some of us live on our ranch and many others have weekend homes and visit often. The land that we own and enjoy today was purchased by W.G. Butler in the late 1800s. It took hard work and sacrifice for our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents to keep this land as they struggled though droughts, wars, the Great Depression and many other economic hardships. This land is the tie that binds us to Karnes County. I hope this book gives an insight into what transpired back in the days of the wild west that has led us to who and where we are today.

Sue Butler Carter

Kenedy, Texas

January 20, 2014

Preface

The idea behind this book came from Sue Butler Carter, who contacted me in July 2009 with the invitation to write about her family.

I had learned about some of the Butlers when I wrote The Life and Death of Juan Coy: Outlaw and Lawman. The Butler family was, and remains, synonymous with ranching in Karnes County. They quickly acquired thousands of acres of land in their professions as farmers and ranchers. Some descendents still live on the same land that was first inhabited by the Burnell Butler family who arrived in 1852 in what would become Karnes County in South Texas.

Some family members, Sykes Butler in particular, kept journals or newspaper clippings which helped immensely in research. Charlotte Nichols was another wealth of information. Unfortunately, most Butlers were not into writing on that scale.

This is primarily about Burnell and Sarah Ann Butler and the first two generations of Butlers that lived in Texas. It is about their struggles and triumphs. There are gaps in some of the people’s stories but only because of the quantity of material.

Traveling to Karnes County for the research in the different libraries or courthouse has always been interesting and the people always helpful. In the beginning, I had almost the entire clerk’s offices to spread out my work and take notes. Then in what seemed like overnight, I was looking for any flat surface to place an index card. The oil boom of Eagle Ford Shale had hit and every driller, landman, and truck driver seemed headed for Karnes County.

The Internet is more wide-spread now than when I researched the Coy book in the 1990s. There are thousands of public documents in the Texas State Archives that can be searched on the Internet. It is always interesting to look back at documents from the 1860s to see the changes.

Sue Carter introduced me to different members of her family and Karnes residents who were always interested to know about the book and to contribute more stories about the area or its people which helped with research.

I became more of a history person after college and sometimes got off the highway to drive some back road to visit a museum. Somewhere in the research for this book, I became a semi-historian on Karnes County. Now, I even have a membership in the Karnes County Historical Society.

Acknowledgements

When I accepted Sue Butler Carter’s invitation to write about the Butler family, I could not believe the amount of journals, notebooks, newspaper clippings, and old letters she had. Sue has collected her own library which she shared with me in researching this book. A big hand of appreciation goes to her for coordinating these resources and guidance in this book.

A big debt of gratitude goes to the late Charlotte Nichols, the Butler family historian. She gave the Kenedy Public Library books of genealogy research and history from which I read and borrowed extensively. She also provided me with papers on different subjects and was a tremendous sounding board for my countless questions. Sadly, she died in March 2014 before this was finished.

A big thanks goes to the late Judge Ted Butler and his family for loaning me his different family notebooks. Some were scrapbooks with old clippings and some were his notes from decades ago. Another Butler family member who loaned me valuable material with regard to Sykes Butler was Betty Gay Kennedy, who provided notes and photos.

A special thank you goes to the late Archie Ammons for his stories and notes about the Karnes County history, especially Daileyville and Helena.

Thanks goes to Gregory Osborn of the Louisiana Division of the New Orleans Public Library and Molly Hults at the Austin history center for their help in research and to Steve Houston and Jerry Semrod for use of their family photos. Sylvia Pena, library director, and Lisa Tam, library assistant, from the Kenedy Public Library have been a big help. The Kenedy Library has a great resource of photos from the Sykes McClane collection and old county newspapers. I also appreciate the information and help from the libraries in Falls City, Karnes City, and Kerrville, the county and district clerk offices for Karnes County, DeWitt County, and Live Oak County. Also, thanks to the staff at the Joe Barnhart Bee County Library in Beeville which has a modern microfilm system for retrieving and viewing old newspapers.

Chapter One

Burnell Butler G.T.T.

Burnell Butler (May 26, 1806-April 23, 1870) married Sarah Ann Ricks (February 17, 1811-September 24, 1900) on July 2, 1826.

Children: Susan Collier (May 24, 1828-April 25, 1870), Woodward John (March 28, 1830-November 26, 1853), James Ira Byrd (January 21, 1832-January 25, 1910), William Green (June 20, 1834-June 14, 1912), Mary Ann (May 15, 1836-February 8, 1915), Ruth Ellen (December 11, 1838-1925), Robert Andrew Jackson (September 13, 1841-May 20, 1870), Elizabeth (September 13, 1841-February 5, 1879), Albert Brown (May 24, 1844-January 15, 1927), Hulda (1846-1884), Pleasant Burnell (September 13, 1848-August 17, 1930), George Washington (February 19, 1851-August 14, 1879), Marquis Lafayette (February 19, 1851-February 16, 1916), Daniel Webster (May 16, 1858-January 6, 1926).

In the days before Texas was even a state, individuals and families migrated to the wide-open territory by foot, horse, buggy, wagon, and boat. They left the bustling cities of New York and Philadelphia, the log cabins of Kentucky and Tennessee, the farms of Alabama and South Carolina, and the villages of Poland and Germany – all for the land of opportunity in Texas.

G.T.T. could be seen from Vermont to Florida to Illinois. Gone to Texas.

Texas was a land of opportunity and one of the biggest chances for riches – that continues today – took root and blossomed there in the 1860s. One family found success but at times, the prosperity was costly.

Originally a territory of Mexico, Texas became a sovereign nation in 1836 when volunteer forces defeated Mexico, and then entered the United States as the twenty-eighth state in 1845. The prospect of Texas joining the growing Union excited people as it offered vast prairie lands, piney woods, mountain ranges, hilly areas, and warm coastal dunes. Its gigantic size dwarfed other states.

Burnell Butler was one of those who dreamed of a better life in Texas. A deaf-mute, Butler had picked up and moved before, venturing with his family as a child and later as a teenager. This time, however, he was in his 40s, and in charge. This time, migrating to Texas was symbolic of the American exploration that defined that period. And truth be told, the earlier migrations were all within the same region while this one would be west – into the wild west. The history of Burnell Butler’s family is similar to his adopted state, one of hard work, trials and tribulations, and prosperity.

The United States was just in its infancy during President Thomas Jefferson’s second term when Burnell Butler was born May 26, 1806, in Kentucky, which had become the 15th state in 1792. The country was growing and moving during that time, fulfilling the promise of Manifest Destiny. The northeast was settled with such cities as Boston, Philadelphia, New York and the nation’s new capitol, Washington, D.C. When Burnell was born, the country consisted of seventeen states and 5.3 million people, which included 900,000 slaves.

President Jefferson doubled the size of the country by acquiring the Louisiana Purchase from France for $15 million in 1803. Another bold expansion of Jefferson’s was the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which charted the west and northwest for more than two years. People were moving west and south, wanting to find their fortune in the new world. The biggest obstacle was the Indian population, which the U.S. government, thanks to the army, kept pushing further and further west and breaking treaties.

Burnell was born in Indian territory, which didn’t become Mayfield, Kentucky, until after the Butlers had moved in 1815. Burnell’s parents were John Butler and the former Mary Ann Jones. It was said that John Butler fought in the American Revolutionary War and lost an arm in battle. Burnell’s first move, when he was less than ten years old, was from that Indian territory to Washington County, Alabama. The Alabama area later became Wayne County in Mississippi. John Butler died in Wayne County sometime before 1820. The family, which also consisted of brothers and sisters Landon Carter, William, Margaret, Suzanna, Ruth, Elizabeth, Patsy and Fanny, settled in Rankin County and went into farming. (1) Chances are a hurricane might have precipitated a move to the more central region of Mississippi.

Burnell married Sarah Ann Ricks on July 2, 1826, in Wayne County, Mississippi. Burnell was twenty years old at the time and Sarah, who had been born in Sumter County, South Carolina, to William and Martha Ward Ricks, was fifteen years old. William and Martha Ricks divorced in 1830 in Hinds County, Mississippi, and William re-married less than two years later as he and his second wife had more children, including a son named Richard who later moved to Karnes County. (2)

Martha also re-married, taking a gentleman by the name of Payne from Mississippi. Martha became famous as Granny Payne who walked from Mississippi to Texas to visit her family. It is not known how many of those trips she made but she was past the age of seventy-five when she was returning from one trip and died in 1870 in Bosque County, Texas. (3)

Scott County, originally Choctaw Indian territory, was formed in 1833 from parts of Rankin, Covington and Jones counties, hence the reason the earlier Butler children were born in Rankin County and the later ones in Scott County. Scott County was named for Mississippi’s seventh governor, Abram M. Scott.

Scott County, about 160 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico and in the middle of the state, boasted a population in the 1840s of about 1,650 whites and 1,170 blacks. By the time of the next census in 1850, the white population had more than doubled to 3,960 and doubled again a decade later to 8,140.

Sarah Butler gave birth to Susan Collier Butler, the first of her fourteen children on May 24, 1828. After Susan, the children came about every two years, with a little more space after the birth of two sets of twins. Just that Sarah Butler gave birth to fourteen children with none dying in childbirth was a testament to her strong stamina and health. A true pioneer spirit, Sarah Butler gave birth to her first child when she was seventeen years old and the last child thirty years later at the age of forty-seven.

A farmer by trade, Burnell bought land in Scott County through the years, including seven parcels totaling 478.62 acres on January 5, 1841. He had ten slaves – six female and four male – at the time of the 1850 slave schedule.

Burnell’s father-in-law William Ricks was a prominent planter when he lived in South Carolina. In April 1834, Ricks was elected the county’s first probate judge and held the office for several years. The first county seat was Berryville but the offices moved to Hillsboro in 1836.

A group of twelve men and women started the Antioch Baptist Church in Scott County on November 14, 1835. When the congregation opened up for additional members later that day, Mary Butler, Burnell’s mother, was received into the church by experience, having already been baptized. Four months later on February 20, 1836, the church approved that the meeting house be built on Burnell Butler’s property. (4)

Mary Ann Butler died sometime before 1850 in Scott County at Landon Butler’s house. (5)

Elizabeth Butler, Landon’s wife, joined the church by experience on May 14, 1836. In those days, the church conducted services just once a month. Landon was received into the church the following month. Landon began taking a more active role as he was appointed delegate to an association at the August church meeting. That was the same meeting where they agreed to obtain lumber for the church building. (6)

Sarah Butler and her father didn’t join the church until 1837. That was also the first year a black was admitted as a church member. Burnell didn’t join the church until July 18, 1840. (7)

The church was extremely strict in the behavior of its members. Members had to confess their sins before the entire congregation. Sins included drinking, being drunk, fighting and even just thinking about fighting. The children were not mentioned but they surely attended services, heard the sermons, and were indoctrinated into the Baptist beliefs. The Baptist sermon of the time was the fire and brimstone type that would go on for hours. Later, when W.G. and Adeline Butler were married with children, they talked of attending a revival. A tent revival normally went several days and included plenty of singing.

Different generations of Butlers have been active in politics and the community but it appears that Landon was the first in politics as he was elected to the Mississippi State Legislature in 1850.

Burnell’s brother, Landon had 28 slaves. Their father, John had one slave as did Burnell’s father-in-law, William Ricks. (8) Mississippi had almost as many slaves as white people. The slavery issue kept the country divided and weakened the executive branch.

Meanwhile, Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836 but it still had to fight off advances from Mexico and the Indians in the ensuing years. Despite being a sovereign country for several years, Texas wanted to join the United States. Unfortunately, it was anything but smooth sailing as annexation was the popular debate of the day in Washington, D.C. It became a major issue for both political parties in the 1844 presidential election. Already a lame duck because he was not nominated by his own party, John Tyler signed the document just days before he left office that would admit Texas on December 29, 1845. For Tyler, who was elevated to the presidency just a month after William Henry Harrison’s inauguration, the motive was it would quiet the congressional debates. But in actuality, it just stirred up the muck even more. In Texas, it was a major celebration and a chance to flex its muscles even more.

Opportunities were plenty in Texas and people joined the migration. John Wofford left Mississippi in 1848, reached Texas, and settled in the western section of Goliad County, which was to become Karnes County. He built a log house on Ecleto Creek or what became known as Wofford’s Crossing. Wofford wrote to his former neighbor Burnell Butler, describing the prairie with grasses to feed many cattle and how the cattle and horses roamed freely on the rolling pastures. (9)

The goal for Burnell Butler and his family was to travel to Texas, obtain land, and become farmers. What some of the family members really did was to become part of a movement that transformed America’s eating habits into a love affair with beef. The beef industry would become a billion dollar business and it helped spread the newest form of transportation from coast to coast. Cattle drives had been around for decades, even helping feed American Revolutionary soldiers but this would go on to a much grander scale.

They became ranchers, the newest entrepreneurs who turned a $4 cow from the range into a $40 slab of beef at the stockyard.

Another reason for Burnell’s decision to move away from Mississippi was personal. Despite more than twenty years of marriage, he wanted to get away from most of his in-laws. Many of the Ricks family still looked down upon Burnell because he was deaf and mute. (When Burnell’s grave was dug up in the mid-1960s to be reinterred with the rest of the family, one eyewitness reported seeing that the skull had no opening for ears.) There was always that feeling that he was not good enough for their Sarah Ann. He wanted to put distance between him and his in-laws. Burnell must have been on good terms with a few in-laws as three brothers-in-law – Robert, William and Richard – and sister-in-law Mary Taylor all wound up in South Texas. Robert married Martha Smith, whose mother Margaret Butler was Burnell’s sister. Robert, handicapped with a clubfoot, suffered derision from the Butler family just as Burnell was scorned by the Ricks family for his malady.

The Butlers’ oldest son, Woodward, departed Mississippi in 1849 to look for good farming land in Texas (10). He stayed in Louisiana long enough to grow and harvest a crop so he could afford to continue the journey to Texas. Woodward arrived in Goliad County in April 1850 and stayed on a tract which later became part of Pleasant Butler’s ranch near the San Antonio River. (11)

Woodward sent word back to the family that he had found their new home. It would be three years before Woodward would be reunited with his family. Burnell went about selling his land in order to afford the wagons and supplies for the trip. Burnell had amassed 1,750 acres during his time in Mississippi and sold it to Mr. Lay for one dollar an acre.

Much of the communication fell to Woodward because of his father’s handicap. The kids learned quickly, though. Sometimes, harsh words might have been better than the stern looks Burnell gave. The steely-eyed look could drill through you.

It had been years since any Indian trouble in Mississippi, but the same could not be said for Texas and the Butler’s new home. The last Indian encounter in what would become Karnes County was in October 1848 when Comanche stole horses. The troops, headed by Captain James York, quickly gave chase. A battle on the Escondido Creek, which later became Pleas Butler’s property, ensued with three troops, including York, and seven Indians dying. The Comanche infiltrated the area just once more, stealing cattle and burning buildings in 1855.

Karnes County, established in 1854, grew out of Bexar, DeWitt, Goliad, Gonzales, and San Patricio counties. It was named for Henry Wax Karnes, a soldier, scout and spy during the Texas Revolution. A Tennessee native, Karnes died of yellow fever at the age of 27 and was described as being modest, generous and devoted to his friends. (12)

Thirteen of Burnell and Sarah Ann’s children were born in Mississippi. The last one, Daniel, was born in Karnes County, Texas, in 1858. Daniel was born thirty years after his oldest sister, Susan Collier had been born. In fact, Susan’s daughter Jane, born April 17, 1846, in Mississippi, was older than four of her uncles and probably her Aunt Hulda.

The 1850 census showed Susan Johnson, then twenty-two, and her daughter Jane (Burnell and Sarah’s first grandchild), three years old, as living with the rest of the Butler family. Susan Collier Butler married Emery (or Elmo) Johnson in 1845. There was no mention of him in the Mississippi census.

James, 18, and William, 16, were both listed as being farmers and attending school. Mary, 14, did not attend school but Ruth, 12, did.

Five more families and their slaves were making plans and packing personal belongings to join Burnell Butler’s family for the trip west. They were John and Thomas Pullin, Jesse and Sarah Ann Little (eight children), Angus and Letha Lewis (two children), Chappell Spencer and Suzanna Boutwell (two children), and Robert and Martha Ricks (eight children). (13)

Boutwell, from Alabama, went on to become Karnes County’s first sheriff. He died in LaSalle County on January 29, 1889, when a gun that was situated in a wagon he was riding in accidentally discharged killing him.

Jesse Little, born in North Carolina in 1806, and Sarah, born in South Carolina in 1813, had their first five children (Margaret, John Harper, James G., Martha E., and Robert Augustus) in Alabama and the last three (George W., Jesse T., and Lee) in Mississippi. Their move from Alabama to Mississippi occurred sometime between mid-1842 and early 1845. The oldest child Margaret married Samuel Ratliff in 1848. (14)

Jessie Little died on the way to Texas and was buried somewhere on the prairie. The Pullins reportedly returned to Scott County, probably with horses to trade, after spending time in Texas.

Hiram Pullin, his wife Candacy (or Candasa) Ware Butler, and their two children followed the Butlers to Texas from Mississippi in 1854. One son, Jack was born in Lavaca County and the other eight were born in Karnes County. (15)

Among the slaves were Ransome Butler and Henry Potter. It was common for the slaves to take the last name of their owner’s. Henry Potter was the father of Ned Potter, who was born in 1858 and would stay with the Butler family for most of his life until the 1930s. (16)

The Butler children who made the trip were the divorced Susan Collier Butler Johnson, 24; James Byrd, 20; William Green, 18; Mary Ann, 16; Ruth, 13; the first set of twins, Robert Andrew Jackson and Elizabeth, both 11; Albert Brown, 8; Hulda, 6; Pleasant Burnell, 4; and the infant twins, George Washington and Marquis Lafayette, who were nineteen months old when the journey started. Susan’s six-year-old daughter, Jane, was also on the trip.

The plan was to leave Scott County, Mississippi, for Texas in September 1852. Trying to avoid the August heat, yet make it to Texas before the severe winter cold set in, the Butlers probably thought they were leaving at the ideal time. The Butler, Pullin and other families could not leave without one last bit of hardship, though. A major hurricane formed on August 19, 1852, and soon headed straight for Mississippi. The eye reached the eastern side of Mississippi a week later and then headed into the western side of Alabama.

Although Scott County was far enough from the eye, it was still close enough to receive torrential rains and heavy winds that also spawned tornadoes. They waited out the hurricane then resumed plans for the adventure.

More than fifty years later, Pleasant Burnell Butler recalled his family’s departure in The Trail Drivers of Texas:

I was at that time four years old, but remember distinctly the start for Texas, father and mother, twelve children, and seven negro slaves, traveling in covered wagons, each drawn by two yoke of oxen, mother driving a hack with a team of big horses and father riding a fine saddle horse. I recall clearly a stop made near Jackson, Miss. to bid good-bye to my aunt, Mrs. Porter, and how my aunt drove down the road with us in a great carriage with a negro driver on a high seat in front – a barouche of the real old South. (17)

The Mississippi River is about a quarter of a mile wide in the state that shares its name. The family boarded ferries that crossed the mighty Mississippi River at Natchez. They heard the massive river flowing before reaching the top of the levee. Standing at the top and witnessing such a natural and beautiful force before your eyes takes your breath away. Years later, Pleasant recalled when he was four years old about how the splendor created an impression on my childish mind that has never been effaced. (18) It left many of the other Butlers and passengers in awe, too, just as it has on people for centuries.

The journey was long and hard. The family left Mississippi when the weather was warm and it got cooler as they went west. November turned into December and they were still on the trail. Most days were cool and pleasant riding on the trail but it would get rather cold as the sun went down. The American Revolutionary War hero twins – George Washington and Marquis Lafayette born February 19, 1851 – were just getting their feet under them when the journey started. It became a chore for the older children to care for them while Sarah drove a wagon. The twins did their share of crying so it was a treat when they were able to sleep and give the others a break from the noise. The girls were called upon to help with the toddlers’ care.

Wash and Fate, as they were better known when they got older, would be a surprise for Woodward who had only four brothers when he left home in 1849 but now had six. The family reunion would be even bigger than he anticipated.

Crossing the Mississippi and some of the rivers in Louisiana took time and were a little difficult but nothing compared to what their journey would have been like if they had gone through the south with its swamps. Dangerous animals were also to be reckoned with but again, better than alligators and snakes in the southern part of Louisiana. The animals through the North were easier to kill and made for good eating. Fresh water was more available for the travelers in the North, too.

The family was heading more southwest as they crossed the Sabine River, the boundary between Louisiana and Texas, probably in late October or early November. The land was flat and there was plenty of grass for the stock to graze. Settlements and towns were still scarce though. The Butlers had to avoid an Indian tribe in the piney woods of East Texas as they kept heading west southwest. Once they hit Texas, though, the journey was just about halfway, and the terrain was mainly flat.

Excitement grew as the team got deeper into Texas. Gently rolling hills of green grass seemed to stretch forever. The group traveled through the San Jacinto area where Texas independence had been won and trees and green grass gave way to open prairie down through to Goliad. They were almost home. It would also mean that the family would be whole again, as Pleasant Butler continued in The Trail Drivers of Texas:

When the family reached the spot on the wild prairie lands where the town of Nordheim now stands, we camped under a great live oak tree, the only tree in miles to