{{short description|American politician (1819–1889)}}

{{Infobox officeholder | name = Thomas H. Butler | image = File:Thomas_Harvey_Butler_Sr._(1819–1889).jpg | office = Secretary of State of Tennessee | term_start = 1870 | term_end = 1873 | governor = Dewitt Clinton Senter<br/>John C. Brown | predecessor = A. J. Fletcher | successor = Charles N. Gibbs | state_senate1 = Tennessee | district1 = 9th | term_start1 = 1875 | term_end1 = 1876 | predecessor1 = Newton W. McConnell | successor1 = J. A. Trousdale | birth_date = {{Birth date|1819|10|13|mf=yes}} | birth_place = Butler's Landing, Tennessee, US | death_date = {{Death date and age|1889|5|20|1819|10|13|mf=yes}} | death_place = Gainesboro, Tennessee, US | spouse = Mary "Polly" Gore<br/>Sarah Ann Holford | children = Mounce Gore Butler | birth_name = Thomas Harvey Butler Sr. | caption = 1870 portrait of Butler }}

'''Thomas Harvey Butler Sr.''' (October 13, 1819 – May 20, 1889) was an American politician, soldier, attorney and engineer.

Listed as T.H. Butler in the official ''Tennessee Blue Book'', Thomas Harvey Butler served as the fifteenth Secretary of State for the State of Tennessee from 1870 to 1873 under Governors Dewitt Clinton Senter and John Calvin Brown.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tre|first1=Hargett|title=Tennessee Blue Book|date=2015–16|publisher=TN Department of State’s Publications Division|page=595 [PDF p. 22]|url=http://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/sos/bluebook/15-16/15-16BBTNPastGov.pdf|access-date=7 December 2017}}</ref> From 1875 to 1876 Butler served as the State Senator for the Ninth District in the Tennessee Senate, a member of the 39th General Assembly or Legislature, representing the Counties of Macon, Clay, Smith, Trousdale, Sumner, and Jackson.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=Charles A.|title=The Official and Political Manual of the State of Tennessee|date=1890|publisher=Marshall & Bruce, Stationers|location=Nashville, TN|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_YoFIAAAAYAAJ/page/n251 234]|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_YoFIAAAAYAAJ|quote=T.H. Butler.|access-date=12 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Black|first1=Diane|title=Tennessee Senators|date=2010|publisher=Tennessee State Library and Archives|location=Nashville, TN|page=28 [PDF p. 32]|url=http://sostngovbuckets.s3.amazonaws.com/tsla/history/misc/tga-senate3.pdf|access-date=18 December 2017}}</ref> Butler also raised a future statesman, his son Mounce Gore Butler, a United States Congressman who represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1905 to 1907.<ref>{{cite web|title=BUTLER, Mounce Gore|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B001185|website=Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress|access-date=19 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310101512/http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B001185|archive-date=March 10, 2016}}</ref> In 1910, Secretary Butler was posthumously honored by a later Secretary of State, Hallum Goodloe, by hanging Butler's portrait on the walls of Tennessee's State Capitol.<ref>{{cite news|title=Collection of Portraits|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16350076/thomas_harvey_butler_portrait_hung_in/|access-date=7 January 2018|publisher='The Nashville American' Newspaper|date=April 6, 1910}}</ref>

==Soldier== Butler enlisted in the 25th Tennessee Infantry of the Confederate States Army<ref>{{cite web|title=Soldier Details|url=https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm?soldierId=85D9CB89-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A|website=National Park Service|publisher=U.S. Dept. of the Interior|access-date=15 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103003306/https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm?soldierId=85D9CB89-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A|archive-date=3 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Compiled Service Records of Soldiers from Tennessee|url=https://www.fold3.com/image/74293757|website=Fold3 by Ancestry|access-date=15 December 2017}}</ref> on August 10, 1861, at age 35 in Livingston, Tennessee.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Tennessee M268, Rolls 224-226|title=25th Tennessee Infantry Regiment|url=https://www.tngenes.net/index.php/military/rosters/231-25th-tennessee-infantry-regiment-csa|website=TNGenes Genealogy|access-date=7 December 2017}}</ref> Butler was appointed by Gov. Isham Harris to the Commissary Office as a Captain<ref>{{cite book|title=Senate Document No. 234 of the U.S. Serial Set, 58th Congress, 2nd Session|date=1904|publisher=Government Printing Office|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=524–525|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7g1HAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Thomas+H.+Butler%22|access-date=8 December 2017}}</ref> of the 25th Tennessee under Colonel Sidney S. Stanton<ref>{{cite book|last1=White|first1=Robert|title=Messages of the Governors of Tennessee 1857-1869, Volume 5|date=1959|publisher=Tennessee Historical Commission|page=702|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y25DAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Thomas+H.+Butler%22|access-date=11 December 2017}}</ref> on September 27, 1861 and was honorably discharged by Gen. George G. Dibrell on March 7, 1862.<ref>{{cite book|title=War Department Collection of Records, 1825-1927|url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/51167050|website=National Archives Catalog|series=Series: Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Confederate Organizations, 1903 - 1927 |access-date=3 January 2018}}</ref> In his post-military career Captain Butler was known as Colonel Butler,<ref>{{cite news|title=Personal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15945964/col_thomas_harvey_butler_returns_from/|access-date=23 December 2017|agency='Nashville Union and American' Newspaper|date=30 June 1872}}</ref> a title of respect given to older Southern gentlemen to honor them for exemplary community leadership or government statesmanship.

==Attorney== Butler practiced law as an attorney based in Gainesboro, Tennessee, as did his son Bowen Butler<ref>{{cite news|last1=Butler|first1=T.H., W.B., and Bowen|title=Attorneys Ad|url=http://www.whalen-family.org/Cass-Butler/time/time.htm|access-date=3 January 2015|work='The Upper Cumberland' Newspaper|date=December 24, 1885}}</ref> who also practiced law in Nashville, Tennessee, both of whom are mentioned in Bowen's prestigious biography entry in the book ''Tennessee, the Volunteer State 1769-1923'' which describes the elder Butler as "an able attorney and one of the foremost men in public affairs of Tennessee. For sixteen years he was retained in the office of Circuit Court Clerk of Jackson County, after which he was made County Clerk, ... later he was appointed United States commissioner".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Butler|first1=Bowen|title=Tennessee, the Volunteer State 1769-1923, Vol. IV|date=1923|publisher=S.J. Clarke Publishing|page=134|url=https://archive.org/stream/tennesseevolunte04moor#page/135/mode/1up|access-date=5 February 2017}}</ref> Butler's impressive service as U.S. Commissioner for the Federal Judiciary spanned approximately a decade from 1877<ref>{{cite book|last1=Secretary of the Interior|title=Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth of September, 1877|date=1878|publisher=Government Printing Office|location=Washington, DC|page=336|url=https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/2525/40411_1821100517_0805-00347|access-date=8 December 2017}}</ref> to 1887.<ref>{{cite book|title=Executive Documents of the House of Representatives for the First Session of the Fifty-First Congress, 1889-'90|date=1890|publisher=Government Printing Office|location=Washington, DC|page=111|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p3o3AQAAIAAJ&q=%22T.H.+Butler%22|access-date=11 December 2017}}</ref> A man of many titles, Commissioner Butler also may have been known as Judge Butler when he served as a Justice of the Peace.<ref>{{cite news|title=Hon. Thos. H. Butler. His Death at Gainesboro a Few Days Since.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15885068/thomas_harvey_butler_sr_obituary_1889/|access-date=19 December 2017|agency='The Daily American' Newspaper|location=Nashville, TN|date=May 22, 1889}}</ref> Two other sons and a son-in-law of Butler were prominent lawyers as well, W. Bailey Butler,<ref>{{cite news|title=IN PUTNAM COUNTY. An Epidemic of pneumonia and Many Deaths result|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/119313610/|access-date=20 December 2017|agency='The Daily American' Newspaper|location=Nashville, TN|date=December 23, 1893}}</ref> General Mounce Gore Butler, and General George H. Morgan. Generals Butler and Morgan both served as Attorneys General for Tennessee's 5th Judicial Circuit.<ref>{{cite web|title=BUTLER, Mounce Gore|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B001185|website=Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress|access-date=19 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310101512/http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B001185|archive-date=March 10, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Personal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15947115/george_h_morgan_attorney_general_5th/|access-date=22 December 2017|agency='Nashville Union and American' Newspaper|date=August 30, 1870}}</ref>

==Engineer==

Butler's work in the field of civil engineering involved road and highway construction, bridge building, and land surveying. In March 1854, "An Act to incorporate the Lafayette, Rome, and Lebanon Turnpike Company" by the Tennessee 30th General Assembly was passed into law in which Butler was named among "a body politic and corporate to open books and receive stock for the purpose of constructing the Jennings and Line creeks turnpike road &#91;State Route 56&#93; from Gainsboro' by the nearest and most direct route to the Kentucky State line, in the direction of Tompkinsville, Kentucky" and "to bridge Line and Jennings creeks on the line of said road".<ref>{{cite book|title=Acts of the State of Tennessee Passed at the First Session of the Thirtieth General Assembly, for the Years 1853-4|date=1854|publisher=M'Kennie & Brown, Book and Job Printers, True Whig Office|pages=471–473|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D844AAAAIAAJ&q=%22Thomas+H.+Butler%22|access-date=14 December 2017}}</ref> Years later in March 1860, "An Act to charter the Granville and Martin's Creek Turnpike Company" by the Tennessee 33rd General Assembly was passed into law which appointed Butler as a Commissioner for the purpose of locating the route upon which the Gainesboro and Defeated Creek Turnpike (State Route 53) would best be built, "to survey the two routes from Gainsboro', by the way of Flynn's Lick, to ... Smith county".<ref>{{cite book|title=Public Acts of the State of Tennessee, Passed at the First Session of the Thirty-Third General Assembly for the Years 1859-60|date=1860|publisher=E.G. Eastman & Co., Public Printers, Union and American Office|pages=549–550|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yyZAAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Thomas+H.+Butler%22|access-date=14 December 2017}}</ref> In 1870 working with fellow surveyor William Gore,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Loftis|first1=Lynne A.|title=Jackson Co., TN Loose District/Chancery Court Papers, Reel #92, Vol: 1839-1915|url=http://www.tngenweb.org/jackson/court_reels/court_reel_92.htm|website=Jackson County TNGenWeb Project|access-date=20 December 2017}}</ref> Butler was instrumental in helping establish a new county in Tennessee, namely Clay County.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Walker|first1=Hugh|title=Civil War Manuscript Revealing|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15221024/thomas_harvey_butler_helped_establish/|access-date=18 November 2017|work='The Tennessean' Newspaper|date=April 19, 1981}}</ref> Butler's engineering skills would eventually aide him in his turnpike and railroad-oversight roles as ex-officio Internal Improvement Commissioner and as a Commissioner of Railroads while serving as Secretary of State.<ref>{{cite book|title=Senate Journal of the Adjourned Sessions of the Thirty-Sixth General Assembly, of the State of Tennessee (Dec. 1870)|date=1871|publisher=Jones, Purvis & Co., Printers to the State|pages=74–76|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tZNGAQAAMAAJ&q=%22T.+H.+Butler%22|access-date=20 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Turnpikes|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15887102/secy_thomas_harvey_butler_turnpikes/|access-date=20 December 2017|agency='Nashville Union and American' Newspaper|date=October 21, 1871}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Tennessee Senate Journal of 1885 [Appendix: First and Second Annual Reports of the Railroad Commissioners]|date=1884|publisher=Albert B. Tavel, Printers to the State|location=Nashville, TN|page=96|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-tQnAQAAMAAJ&q=Butler|access-date=14 December 2017}}</ref>

==Family== Butler's first wife was Mary "Polly" Gore (1822–1851), a distant relative of U.S. Vice-President Al Gore.<ref>{{cite web|title=Historical Person - Mary Gore|url=https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/mary-gore_7972033|website=Ancestry.com|access-date=7 December 2017}}</ref> According to Susan Butler's family Bible, Thomas and Mary were married July 2, 1844, and "their issue are Mary Ann, William Bailey, Mounce Gore and Sarah Ellenor".<ref>{{cite book|title=Susan Butler Family Bible|page=Marriages registry|url=http://www.whalen-family.org/Cass-Butler/pics/sbible4.jpg|access-date=7 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030907032803/http://www.aros.net/~cbutler/pics/sbible4.jpg|archive-date=7 September 2003|url-status=dead}}</ref> thumb|alt=Thomas H. Butler Grave Monument|Thomas H. Butler Grave Monument (Photo by Fay C. Leonard, 2017) Butler's second wife was Sarah Ann Holford (1834–1900), and they "were married 14 April 1853 and their issue are Lizzie Loucetta, John Franklin, Bowen Butler, George Grundy, Martha Jane, Dixie, Rosa Lee, Thomas Harvey, and James Wash, Sam Stone".<ref>{{cite book|title=Susan Butler Family Bible|page=Marriages registry|url=http://www.whalen-family.org/Cass-Butler/pics/sbible4.jpg|access-date=7 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030907032803/http://www.aros.net/~cbutler/pics/sbible4.jpg|archive-date=7 September 2003|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Butler was born in Clay County (then Jackson County), Tennessee, the son of Colonel Bailey Butler (1779–1842) and Sarah "Sally" Scanland (1789–1828). On July 4, 2003, the Tennessee Historical Commission dedicated an official historical marker in their hometown of Butler's Landing which the Butlers founded.<ref>{{cite web|title=Butler's Landing Historical Marker Dedication Ceremony|url=http://whalen-family.org/Bailey-dedication.html|website=Ancestors of Sandra (Whalen) Bauer|access-date=21 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030419063526/http://whalen-family.org/Bailey-dedication.html|archive-date=19 April 2003}}</ref> Butler's pioneer father and their family are honored on one side of the marker, while Butler's Landing and Daniel Boone are honored on the other side of the same marker.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Morfe|first1=Don|title=Butler's Landing / Bailey Butler|url=https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=74336|website=The Historical Marker Database|access-date=21 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007111110/https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=74336|archive-date=October 7, 2015}}</ref> Butler died in Gainesboro, Jackson County, Tennessee<ref>{{cite news|title=Obituary [Short Version]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15885900/thomas_harvey_butler_sr_obituary_1889/|access-date=19 December 2017|agency='The Daily American' Newspaper|date=May 22, 1889|location=Nashville, TN|page=4}}</ref> and is buried there in Gainesboro Cemetery.

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=A. J. Fletcher}} {{s-ttl|title=Secretary of State of Tennessee|years=1873–1881}} {{s-aft|after=Charles N. Gibbs}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Thomas H.}} Category:1819 births Category:1889 deaths Category:19th-century members of the Tennessee General Assembly Category:Tennessee state senators Category:Secretaries of state of Tennessee Category:People from Gainesboro, Tennessee Category:People from Clay County, Tennessee