Re: Butterfields in Revolutionary War & Civil War
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In reply to:
Re: Butterfields in Revolutionary War & Civil War
2/10/10
Written by Phebe Smith (fourth daughter of Ephraim Butterfield and Phebe Johnson)
"Due to the desire of some of my relatives I am here giving as much of the history as I have been able to collect of the Butterfield family.this was written while I was living in Akron Ohio, [707 Edgewood Avenue].
This will be given in three parts:History of the Butterfield Family, History of the Johnson Family, and the Genealogy of the Butterfield Family. [note:I will also post the Johnson info, but did not copy her 'geneology', though I will look into that.If I recollect, I did not do so as it matched what I already had.Lisa O']
History of the Butterfield Family
There lived in the state of Vermont in the year of 1780 people by that name, whose given name was John and his wife's name was Parker before her marriage to John Butterfield, their children's names were Lucy born 1790, Daniel was born 1795, William was born 1798, Parker was born 1801, in the state of Vermont at the foot of the Green Mountains.John Butterfield and family then moved to New Hampshire, then from there to the state of New York in the year 1814 after living in New York for several years. John Butterfield and wife both died the same year, before the death of [I believe this should read, Before their death] their daughter Lucy married a young man by the name of Samuel Rogers, he being a shoemaker by trade.He had much to do so he could not help her make garden so they got Ephraim to help her for six weeks, they gave him one bushel of salt for his parents, salt at that time costing six dollars a barrel, (I heard her father tell it on several different times).Shoes and boots were all made by hand at that time.After the death of his [Ephraim] parents he made his home with his sister Lucy.I heard him say he rode or drove the mule that pulled the canal boat the canal running from Albany on the Hudson River to Buffalo on Lake Erie.I think they lived between Albany and Troy.
The men would start in the morning with the canal boat and go until noon then after dinner would hitch the mule to another boat and go back again so that they would be at home each night, and others would hitch to the one they had taken in the morning and that way they kept boats going all the time in the canal until they would get to Buffalo, then would send the boat back to Albany again.There is a canal running through the city of Akron, Ohio, where I now live and I saw canal boats go through the "locks' as they are called, but the city is now trying to have it fill up as it is so near the main street, no boats running for years.After hearing father speaking about the "locks" as they are called, then to see the men open them so the boat could go through surely was a sight to many.Many times people would stand on a bridge over the canal and see the boats go through, I with the rest.We all said is surely payed us for the few moments that we spent watching the water pass on the the other 'lock', and see the boat lower too, so to go on to Cleveland and it's destination, from the Ohio River.
About the time that Ephraim was twelve or fourteen years old the President of the United States issued a notice that if any one wanted a home that they could have one hundred and sixty (160) acres of timberland in Michigan free by them living on it and improving it for a home for 5 years, so Ephraim and his sister Lucy's family decided to go.They bought six yoke of oxen, three covered wagons, two yoke of oxen to each wagon, three guns, three large watch dogs, besides their household goods and something to eat, besides hay for the oxen, they slept in the wagons.It was the spring of the year so Ephraim said, he also said it took them six weeks to make the trip to the place East of the city of Jackson, where the city now is, was then called a settlement.Some of them would walk awhile, then others would get out of their wagons and walk also to let them ride and in that way none got so tire, would stop and cook, as the oxen rested and eat too.
Ephraim's brothers all remained in the state of New York, but their children's children did not all stay there as some of Joseph's children went to Michigan and settled in Van Buren County, and some came to Ohio and are living in the northern part of Summit County.Two families are in East Akron, their names being in the city directory, one by the name of Butterfield lived near my home.I saw him and talked with him, he said his Grandfather lived in Vermont.
How long the three families lived near the settlement I do not know, but it must have been several years, as I heard my Father tell that the Inidans got so bad that the President called for men to enlist and go to subdue them, as they were murdering people, especially the men, and taking the women and girls as slaves in Ohio, and in Pennsylvania, taking all the food for themselves, then burning the houses down and taking them to their camps here in Ohio, near where I live now.Two minutes walk from my home which is now an eighty acre park given to the city of Akron by a Mr. Perkins for a park, there being a cave not far away where they hid their captives for several weeks after they captured them so no one could find them and hear their cries.I have a History of them and the cave too, have been told that the Indian Chief whose name was Black Hawk, was captured and while a prisoner vowed if he ever got free, he would soon kill all the "palefaces" as he called the white people.and I have heard my father say that the President ordered him (Black Hawk) handcuffed between two very stout soldiers and then taken to the four largest cities in the United States.(he believing that there were only fifty or one hundred white people) but on their return to prison with him he said, "me gives up, me gives up" and he did, and was always a friend to the white people as long as he lived.I have now in my possession a brass button that I cut off from my Father's overcoat that he wore in the war at the time he was a soldier, it is solid brass nearly as large as a twenty-five cent piece, is smooth on top near the other edge, and in center is a powder horn hanging by a cord with loops so to represent it hanging up agains the wall, above the cord is seven stars and below the powder horn are six more stars, the thirteen stars to represent the thirteen states in the United States of America, and on the under side of the button is a solid brass eye that is soddered on, and around the eye are the words, "Imperial Standard" being the name of the company manufacturing buttons for the soldiers to be sewed on their blue overcoats by hand sewing.I heard my father say that he was a soldier, in the Black Hawk war of 1832, I have soldier buttons that my brother Charles Asa Butterfield fetched home with him and a piece of hard tack too, that he said was what the soldiers had to eat in the place of bread in the Civil War, and some soldier buttons that my son Norman Bailer smith gave to me that he fetched from the Philippine Islands, he has a 'bolo' that he fetched from there, as remembrance of an incident that happened while he was standing on guard, he said that while he was standing one moment so to the other end of his "beat" as the soldiers called it, that behind him in the tall grass he heard a noise sounding like the breaking of a small dead limb and on turning around saw a Philippine just getting up off from his knees onto his feet with the bolo in one hand ready to kill him before he got quite to him, and the other guards hearing the report of a gun soon came to the place where his beat was to see if someone had killed an American soldier, the officer in charge of those standing guard had to be notified and had the Philippine buried, a bolo is a very long butcher knife with a wide blade and has a point at the back part that comes up nearly two inches to a sharp point to pierce throught the skull, in case of a failure to cut their head off with the knife.But to return to Ephraim Butterfield again, he returned to Michigan after the war and in Janueary the 10th 1833 he married a young lady by the name of Phebe Johnson.
(Norman B. Smith spent 3 years in the U.S. Army, one year of the three in the Philippine Islands.)
I also have her written account of the Johnson side, and much more.
Would love to know who Claude married (when/where) and his descendents.Have nothing else on him.His middle name is Pernett?Have his siblings too.
Lucy Jane Butterfield married James Madison Chamberl(a)in.She is my great-grandmother and I have lots on her. I believe James and Delia are related, siblings or cousins, but have not been able to prove that yet.
Lisa