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Mason County History CompanionOld Places Familiar Faces |
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Mason County History CompanionOld Places Familiar Faces |
Would you like to help transcribe or collect information?
Would you like to help transcribe or collect information? Mail to: Dave Petersen
PIONEER OF MASON COUNTY
For Thirty Years a Resident and Active
Participant in Life and Business of This Community
Death came suddenly Tuesday night to Horace Butters. He was in his 72nd year and was afflicted with heart disease so that death might be expected to overtake him at any time. Yet the announcement of that always sudden though ever expected event gave a distinct shock to this community, one influence of which reached the outside even of Michigan, to the Carolinas on the south, to Idaho and California on the west. Tuesday Mr. Butters drove home and spent the evening much as usual. Shortly after nine o'clock he had one of his "bad spells." He was seated. Mrs. Butters tried to assist him. His head collapsed, the nerves relaxed, the vital spark had fled. No moment of his strenuous life was more placid than that of dissolution.
A Pioneer in Business
More than 30 years ago Mr. Butters first began active operations in Mason County. In 1874 he leased a sawmill at Freesoil, which he operated three years. Previous to that time he had been in Manistee for more than 20 years. Like other lumbermen the field of his operations and his firm name suffered alterations but success was nearly always his portion. In 1878 Mr. Butters and R. J. Peters of Manistee became associated as the Butters & Peters Salt and Lumber Co., purchased a tract of pine in the western part of the county and laid out the Tillage of Tallman and erected a saw mill there. Four years later the firm purchased the Cartier & Filer plant and made the present town of Buttersville the seat of their occupations.
Wide Range of Operations
Enough has been said to indicate the Influence of Mr. Butters and of his firm in Mason County and its history. It seems that at some time the firm has operated in every township in Mason County. The range of their operations was extended from timber to lumber, to salt to railroads, ever steadily growing under Mr. Butters' cunning guidance. The universal esteem which Mr. Butters held was evidence of the equitable policy which he always made use of in his business dealings.
The funeral services will be conducted tomorrow afternoon from the home of Marshall Butters by Rev. Thomas H. M. Coghlan, summoned here from Cadillac for that purpose. Of his children there will be present at the occasion M. F. Butters, Mrs. J. H. Lyons, Charles E. Butters and Walter E. Butters, all of whom reside in Ludington, and Mrs. A. B. Anderson of Grand Marais. William Butters at present engaged in California and Stephen Butters of Oregon will be the only children not present. The passing of Horace Butters marks an epoch in the history of Mason county fast drawing to a close. Of that first vanguard of civilization which early pushed its way into Mason county Mr. Butters lingered latest.
He outlasted his companions in that throng of restless, eager, virile men. who years, ago thrust themselves into this frontier to hazard fate, to wrest fortune from primeval wilds and forbidding nature. Their departure marks the rise of another generation, the birth of a new set of men, the development of a. changed life, of an altered circumstance, of a gentler environment, the dawn of a new day upon a new world.
However much we may rejoice that our way lies along pleasanter paths, however much we may expand in the softer air and the milder life of today yet we pulse with a thrill of primitive pride at that which these our forbears have builded. Horace Butters was of the class and before him for them we stand uncovered and offer our mute tribute. He, as they, felled the trees, blazed the trail, laid the corduroy. The tumult of his ax men resounded in solitudes, which had known only the whispering of the pine and the fir. They let in the sunshine to cover the earth with a fairer growth, to fill the air with a sweeter fragrance, a more delicate music, to people the world with a new life. Our tribute is due. Let us offer it with silence and sincerity, the man is gone but his work will endure.
Copyright 1998-2014 All Rights Reserved
Note to researchers, I do not maintain information on families outside of my own at this time, Your best chance to contact other family researchers and find information is going to be in posting some of your family information on the Mason County Boards. Volunteers and lookup materials can be found in the "lookups" category. -I routinely check the postings if I have information or can steer you in another direction I will contact you. I do not provide research services. Historic White Pine Village can help you in that area.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: The information you have found on this website is protected by the US Copyright Law, Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. See; http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/ Individual genealogists may copy and use the information found on this website for personal use "ONLY".
It is not to be copied or altered in any way for commercial use nor for use on another webpage without the written permission of the webmaster. You may link freely to this website using the following http://www.ludingtonmichigan.net Where information has been provided by someone other than the webmaster, written permission must be obtained by the submitter to copy the information. Every effort has been made to insure the information found here is accurate, you are however encouraged to check the primary source for accuracy as mistakes are made by all of us.Mail to: Dave Petersen