BUTLER. BUTLER. 93 spent some three years in Boston as hostler and coachman. But the life became dis- tasteful, and with a cousin he went to Spencer, and for a while kept the old " Jenks Tavern." He sold out his interest in the tavern in 1846, and in company with Jeremiah Grout began the manufacture of boots. In 1S66 Mr. Grout retired, and Mr. Bush conducted the business alone, until Horace A. Grout united with him, and they increased their business until they were widely known as extensive manufacturers. Mr. Bush continued in this business until 1SS1, when he retired from active manufacturing, though he has been and still is interested in various local enter- prises and public improvements. Mr. Bush was married in Spencer, Tune 8, 1847, to Eleanor P., daughter of Jeremiah and Hannah (Nye) Grout. The issue of this marriage was two daughters: Ella Frances and Clara Maria Bush. Mr. Bush is trustee of the Savings Bank and director in the National Bank; has been deacon of the Congregational church twenty-five years, and was a member of the lower branch of the Legislature in 1859. He is a staunch friend of the temperance cause, and a firm and unyielding supporter of the authorities engaged in the suppres- sion of the liquor traffic. He is a true and steadfast lover of humanity, an honored exemplar of a true man and a good citizen. BUTLER, Benjamin Franklin, son of Captain John and Charlotte (Elison) But- ler, was born in Deerfield, Rockingham county, N. H., November 5, 1818. His father was of the 2d regiment light dra- goons in the war of 1812, and served under Gen. Jackson at New Orleans, and his grandfather, Captain Zephaniah Butler of Woodbury, Connecticut, fought under Gen. Wolfe at Quebec in 1758. The district school helped him to many things taught from books until he was nine years old, when he entered Phillips Acade- my, Exeter. At that time his mother re- moved to Lowell with her boys. Here Benjamin entered the high school, where he prepared himself for college. He was graduated from Waterville College (now Colby University), Maine, in the class of 1838. His fertile mind was not content with what he learned from books. Of phe- nomenally quick perception, and memory that pigeon-holed the most minute detail, he had acquired a fund of classified knowl- edge of the world that later stood him in good stead. He studied law with William Smith for two years, when he was admitted to the bar, upon examination, in September, 1840, and began practice in Lowell at once. Much of myth and legend is connected with the first years of this young lawyer ; but the results of his early training, and of his gleaning of practical knowledge from his first years of court practice, are too clearly evidenced in the mature Benjamin F. Butler, for the public to care for the truth or the falsity of those details. More- over, he is to-day too prominently before the world, too well known to the American citizen, to require eulogy or criticism from the pen of his biographer. No man has warmer friends, and no man cares less for BENJAMIN F. BUTLER. enemies. Loyal to his client, and faithful to his friend, he never forgets the fang- stroke of an enemy, though the venom fail in its work. He was married in Lowell, May 14. 1844, to Sarah, daughter of Dr. Israel and Dolly Jones Hildreth. Mrs. Butler died in Boston, April 8, 1876. Of this union were three children : Blanche, Paul, and Ben-Israel. In 1853 Gen. Butler was a member of the House of Representatives, and the Con- stitutional Convention of the same year. In 1859 he was elected a member of the state Senate. In i860 he was a delegate to the national Democratic convention
