Christopher Columbus Butler

Christopher Butler was the son of Sally and Revolutionary War soldier James Butler. James (b 5 June 1758 St. Paul Parish, Hanover, Virginia), was the son of Zachariah Butler (b ca 1736; Hanover, Virginia), and Sarah Bowe (b ca 1755-1757 Hanover) the daughter of Henry Bowe Jr. and Sarah Fitzpatrick.

In the 1785 Early Tax Digest of Wilkes County, Georgia, James received bounty land for his service in the War. He removed to Georgia right after 1790 to life on his land, which by then was located in Elbert County, formed from Wilkes County.

James was a resident of Elbert County for 46 years. He was a member first of Bethel "E" Baptist Church, and later in Elbert County of Falling Creek Baptist located on old Post Road, Elberton, Elbert County.

In 1833 James applied for and received a pension, the benefit of the Act of Congress passed June 6, 1832.

In 1836, James, along with neighbors and relatives, moved to Shelby County Alabama in a wagon train headed by Jordan Jones. Jordan had been a neighbor of James in Elbert County for 30 years, and helped James join his family in Alabama. On June 5, 1837 James applied to have his pension changed to his new residence in Alabama. He gave the following reasons for removing "from the State of Georgia - "because I have ten children who reside in Shelby County Alabama and I am desirous to spend the short residue of my life with them. This and this alone was the only cause which induced me to remove."
A granddaughter of James married a son of Jordan Jones. James died after June 1, 1840, and was buried in what later became the Jones-Bailey Cemetery on land belonging to Jordan. James was possibly the first person to have been buried there. A collection of stones in a built up rectangle with sloping sides and flattened top was placed over his grave site. Such mounds of stones were also used back in Georgia to marker earlier Butler graves. When Jordan Jones died he was buried very near James. The cemetery is listed on the State Historical Registry, James Butler was twice married and was the father of 21 children. On October 16, 1983, a monument was dedicated and placed by the Shelby Historical Society. (See The Heritage of Blount County and Cullman County.)

Submitted by Rebecca Davis Henderson, 121 Meadow Drive, Madison, AL 35758

Source: Howard Butler; 1611 Laurel Avenue, 1101, Knoxville, Tennessee 37916 (in 1983); family knowledge, reprint from Birmingham News 19 October 1983; reprint of article by Tom O. Caldwell, M. D. immediate past president, Shelby County Historical Society, 1983.