 1847 - 1891 (44 years)
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| Name |
Jay Sylvester Butler |
| Born |
21 Jan 1847 |
Volney, New York, USA  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Died |
13 May 1891 |
Asheville, North Carolina, USA |
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| Buried |
Mount Adnah Cemetery, Fulton, Oswego County, New York, United States |
| Person ID |
I27995 |
Family Tree |
| Last Modified |
15 Jul 2019 |
| Family |
Caroline Brockway, b. 1857, New York, USA , d. 28 Jun 1939, Elmira, New York, USA (Age 82 years) |
| Married |
24 Apr 1889 |
Elmira, New York, USA |
| Last Modified |
14 Jul 2019 |
| Family ID |
F13677 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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| Event Map |
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 | Born - 21 Jan 1847 - Volney, New York, USA |
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 | Married - 24 Apr 1889 - Elmira, New York, USA |
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 | Died - 13 May 1891 - Asheville, North Carolina, USA |
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 | Buried - - Mount Adnah Cemetery, Fulton, Oswego County, New York, United States |
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| Pin Legend |
 : Address
 : Location
 : City/Town
 : County/Shire
 : State/Province
 : Country
 : Not Set |
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| Obituary & Death Notice |
 | Jay Butler Dead
Jay Butler Dead.
Mr. Jay S. Butler, who for ten years was a well-known Buffalo newspaper man, died of consumption at Asheville, N. C., Wednesday night, aged 44 years. Mr. Butler was born on a farm in the town of Volney, Oswego County. His early struggles to secure an education were severe, but successful. He attended the Falley Seminary at Fulton and the Methodist College at Lima, and finally graduated from Cornell University in 1870. His first newspaper work was done at Oswego, where he became city editor of the Times. He was a short time at Erie, and came to Buffalo in 1874, securing employment on the Express as a reporter. In three years he had risen to the editorship, and was in charge of the paper when it was sold to James N. Matthews in January, 1878. Mr. Butler remained with the Express as a news editor and editorial writer till September, 1884, his service having lasted more than ten years. While in Erie and Buffalo he read law in the intervals of his newspaper work, and took the degree of LL.B, at Hamilton College and was admitted to the bar in 1875, but never practiced. He was one of the earliest members of the City Club, and remained a member during his stay in Buffalo. He will be well and kindly remembered by all the older members of that somewhat famous social organization. Mr. Butler began life as a Republican, but he had an instinctive and intense dislike of corruption and bossism and all kinds of wrongdoing in politics as well as in everything else, and as one scandal followed another during the Grant Administration and later, he was gradually alienated from the party of his first choice and became an independent in his views. He knew Mr. Cleveland very well and admired him very much, and when he became a candidate successively for Mayor, Governor, and President, he had no warmer or more sincere supporter than Mr. Butler. In January, 1885, Mr. Butler became editor of the Eimira Gazette, the first Democratic paper for which he had ever written. His editorship was very successful, and he made for himself a warm place in the hearts of the Elmira people. In the spring of 1889 he had a severe attack of typhoid fever, from which he rallied very slowly, and in fact never made a full recovery. His constitution, never strong, was fatally undermined at that time, and the way thus made easy for the malady to which he finally succumbed. Among the friends who most tenderly cared for him during his illness in Elmira was Miss Brockway, daughter of the Superintendent of the State Reformatory. On his convalescence he was married to Miss Brockway, and they went to Europe on a wedding trip of several months' duration, which it was hoped might restore Mr. Butler's health. He returned in the fall of 1859, considerably improved, and obtained employment on the New York Times. The work was beyond his strength, and after a few months he was compelled to relinquish it. He spent last summer in camp at Saranac Lake, in the Adirondacks, where he had several visits with Mr. Cleveland, and whence he wrote interesting letters to the Times. When winter came on he went to Asheville, where the Koch treatment was applied to his case, but without avail. Jay Butler was a man whom his close friends held very dear. Such friends were perhaps not very many, because he did not open his heart to chance acquaintances. While always courteous, he had much reserve; while he enjoyed society, his health, always precarious, and his incessant devotion to his work, made it impossible for him to indulge his social nature. He was the soul of honor and generosity. Frugal and prudent in expenditure for his own personal gratification, his hand was open to his friends. He had an intense sympathy with all truly philanthropical and reformatory ideas, an intense hatred of all wrong and meanness. He was modest, faithful, upright, true-a man to love and a man/to mourn.
--Buffalo Courier, Buffalo, New York, May 15, 1891 Page 4 |
 | Jay S. Butler Dead
JAY S. BUTLER DEAD ＿
The End Came Last Evening at Asheville, N. C.
Sketch of His Career.
Something About His Busy, Useful and Honorable Life -Mr. Brockway Going to Washington This Evening to Meet the Remains.
Jay S. Butler, of this city died at the Winyah House, Asheville, N. C., at 9:30 o'clock last evening. Death was caused by pleurisy and consumption, Mr. Butler having long suffered with the latter disease. Pleurisy developed a week ago, and with his weakened constitution he was unable to withstand the shock. Mrs. Butler was with her husband when he died. They went to Asheville about the middle of January, and had remained there to from that time, Mr. Butler being constantly under the care of a physician. Mr. Butler was forty four years of age and was a very able writer. He was born in Fulton, N. Y. Both his parents are dead. Two of his brothers were killed in the war. The deceased was a newspaper writer the greater part of his life. He was connected with Buffalo newspapers for a number of years and was last employed there as an editorial writer on the Express. On January 1, 1885, Mr. Butler became editor of the Elmira Gazette and remained as such for four years. On April 24, 1889, he was married to Miss Carrie Brockway, a daughter of Superintendent Brockway of the Reformatory, and they went abroad for the summer. Returning in the fall of that year Mr. Butler became connected with the New York Times and remained there until his health failed him to an extent which rendered further work impracticable, and since then he had traveled a good deal in the hope that a change of scene and atmosphere would be of benefit to him. Mr. Brockway will go to Washington, D. C., to-night to meet his daughter to-morrow with the remains. She will leave Asheville at midnight to-night going direct to Washington. Until Mr. Brockway has seen his daughter nothing will be known as to the time or place of the funeral. In the brief time available it is impossible to speak in fitting terms of the qualities that made Mr. Butler admired as a man prized as a friend and associate, and valued in his professional capacity. The finer qualities of mind and heart were in him so mingled and developed that they were most appreciative who had been most familiar and were his truest friends who knew him best. Few men carry into their work greater earnestness or greater conscientiousness. His aim was to be right. His characteristics was carefulness, conservatism and this conscientiousness which was the strongest of them all. To tell what he sought to be and what he was is to relate the purpose of right endeavor carried into accomplishment. The fine traits upon which admirable characters are builded were his by nature. He had the heart of the generous and kindly, the instincts of the gentleman, the disposition of the scholar. With these qualities the evolution of a character to respect and admire is a natural process that in this instance found full development. He was a man to trust. None who knew him well could do other than feel him worthy that confidence that is beyond suspicion. His ability, the columns of this paper during his editorship attest. He came to this city with experience and general equipment in learning that qualified him for his work in an exceptional degree. His style was clear, cool, direct and conservative. It cannot be said that he sacrificed his conception of the truth to make a point, or strained at effectiveness at the expense of this understanding of the facts. No man was farther from the criticism passed upon those who "would rather say a smart thing than a true one." It was his custom to weigh the statements of his pen judicially, to consider them carefully; if he was wrong at any time, it was not from inconsiderateness nor intent. His anxiety to be accurate in statement and exactly correct in conclusion cannot be understood by flippant writers nor appreciated by the public which knows so little of what passes behind sanctum doors. He deserved in the highest degree the respect awarded to excellence of intent and application in the effort to make intent accomplishment. The sense of the loss in the death of Jay S. Butler comes with exceeding keenness to old coadjutors on the Gazette, who knew his worth the better by long association. A wide circle will feel that regret which attends the departure of the possessors of high qualities from the earth. With relatives and immediate friends will remain the consolation that is in the memory of an honorable and well spent life.
--Star-Gazette, Elmira, New York, May 14, 1891 Page 7 |
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