Edwin L. Buttrick journal, 1843-1844

Summary

Creator:

Buttrick, Edwin L.

Abstract:

The Edwin L. Buttrick journal details a young eastern itinerant schoolteacher's encounter with rural Kentucky in the 1840s.

Extent:

138 pages

Language:

English

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by Rob S. Cox, 1996, and Sara Quashnie, November 2020

Background

Scope and Content:

The Edwin L. Buttrick journal details a young eastern itinerant schoolteacher's encounter with rural Kentucky in the 1840s.

Edwin L. Buttrick, nicknamed Ned, left his home in Clinton, New York, on October 7, 1842, to work in Kentucky as an itinerant schoolteacher. He accepted his first position at Maysville, but in October, 1843, moved to Helena to teach at the Richland Academy. His sister Harriette joined him in Helena as a teacher. In his journal, Buttrick discusses his daily activities along with observations on the local language, customs, and scenery. As noted in the following index, Buttrick often expresses opinions on the residents of Kentucky and their way of living. He also singles out women, Jewish people, and African Americans in prejudiced commentary and uses racial slurs.

Buttrick kept his diary daily from September 10 through December 23, 1843, when there is an eight day gap. After January 4, 1844, the journal was kept only sporadically. Buttrick was generally careful in keeping his journal, but there are two page 30s, the lower half of p. 36-7 is ripped out, and pages 124-125 have been removed. The sporadic nature of Buttrick's entries at this period makes it difficult to determine whether there was any loss of text when the page was removed.

Buttrick included an elaborate, hand drawn "title page" with his journal, declaring:

Random Sketches of a Sojourn in the State of Kentucky by the author of the "unknow[n] admirer of his own genius" &c. &c. Vol. II. Tenth American Edition. Revised & corrected (New York: E. L. Buttrick; London: Peter Knockimstiff, 1843)

Biographical / Historical:

Edwin Lorenzo Buttrick was born on August 5, 1824, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Horatio Gates Buttrick (1778-1856) and Mary (Barnard) Buttrick (1788-1874). He was baptized as a Presbyterian and was nicknamed Ned. An 1842 graduate of Hamilton College, Buttrick was a schoolteacher in Kentucky for several years before becoming an attorney.

By 1850, Buttrick lived in Algoma, Wisconsin, as a lawyer at Buttrick & Hill. He later resided in Milwaukee with his first wife Fanny Burling (1831-1871) after their marriage on December 15, 1851, in Green Lake, Wisconsin. They had one daughter, Minnie, who died in infancy in 1867. Buttrick was a Court Commissioner for Winnebago County and later a Judge Advocate General. He served as a lieutenant colonel in the 24th Wisconsin Volunteers and colonel in the 39th Wisconsin during the Civil War. The Buttricks lived in Chicago from 1868 to 1871 where Buttrick worked for the Northwestern Liquid Fuel Company. He also filed a patent for a fire extinguisher on October 17, 1871.

Buttrick married Jane M. Bigelow (1840-1934) on February 12, 1873, in Grafton, Massachusetts, with whom he had one daughter, Mary "Mollie" Bigelow Buttrick (1875-1970). They lived for many years in Charleston, West Virginia, where Buttrick practiced law. He died on November 9, 1908, in Allston, Massachusetts and is buried in Grafton, Massachusetts.

Acquisition Information:

1984. M-2170 .

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Related

Additional Descriptive Data:

Related Materials

Civil War Carte de Visite Photograph of Edwin L. Buttrick, 1864, Wisconsin Veterans Museum, Madison, Wisconsin.

Edwin L. Buttrick Photograph, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Collector : Civil War photographs, circa 1861-circa 1865, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin.

Edwin Lawrence Buttrick, Archives Photograph Collection, Hamilton College Archives, Clinton, New York.

John S. Conway Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin.

Lucius Fairchild Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin.

Root Family Photographs from the Estate of Julia Grant Dietz, Hamilton College Archives, Clinton, New York.

Bibliography

"Necrology: Class of 1842," Hamilton Literary Magazine (June 1908), pp. 345-6.

Howe, Gilman Bigelow. Genealogy of the Bigelow Family of America, From the Marriage in 1642 of John Biglo and Mary Warren to the Year 1890. Worcester, MA: Charles Hamilton, 1890.

Hunt, Roger D. Colonels in Blue: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2017.

Judge Advocate (Brig. Gen. E. L. Buttrick). Laws of Wisconsin and of the United States in Relation to the Militia in Actual Service. Madison, WI: E.A. Calkins, State Printers, 1861.

Tallmadge, John J. and E. L. Buttrick. A Permanent Home for Wisconsin Soldiers. Milwaukee, WI: January 26, 1865.

Thompson-Stahr, Jane. The Burling Books: Ancestors and Descendants of Edward and Grace Burling, Quakers. Baltimore: Gateway Press, 2001.

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Hunting--Kentucky.
Idioms.
Maysville (Ky.)--Description and travel.
Mountain people.
Schools.
Sectionalism (United States)
Slavery--Kentucky.
Social conflict.
Teachers--Kentucky.

Places:

Helena (Ky.)--Description and travel.
Kentucky--Description and travel.