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Pardee Butler Timeline
1816
On March 9th, Pardee Butler was born, in Marcelles, Onondaga County, New York
to Sara Pardee and Phineas Butler.
1818
In the fall of this year the Butler family moved to Wadsworth, Ohio.
1819
Pardee started school at the Wadsworth Academy at the age of three.
1820
Pardee was influenced by Judge Brown who was an uncle of John Brown of Osawatomie, a bitter opponent of slavery and a strong temperance man.
1830
While attending the Academy, Pardee studied the writings of Alexander Campbell and Walter Scott,
whose preaching emphasized the unity of Christians based soley on the authority of the Bible.
1833
Alexander Campbell came to Wadsworth to attend a yearly meeting at William Eyle’s barn.
Pardee and his uncle Aaron Pardee became convinced by Mr. Campbell's presentation of the divine truth.
1835
In June, Pardee was baptized by Elder Newcomb in a stream that flowed through Elder Newcomb's farm in Ohio.
1837
Pardee began preaching before he was ordained.
1839
The family moved to Sandusky Plains, in Ohio, part of the Western Reserve. During this time, Pardee
taught school and dedicated himself to memorizing the New Testament while tending sheep.
1843
While continuing his preaching throughout the Ohio region, Pardee occasionally returned to Wadsworth. During one of these visits at a small church in Sullivan, Ashland County Ohio, he met
Sibjl S. Carleton. The two were married on August 17th of that year.
1844
Pardee was ordained as a minister.
1850
Pardee moves from the Western Reserve in Ohio to Posten’s Grove, Cedar County, Iowa.
1852-1853
He continued to preach in Iowa and Illinois.
1855
He staked a claim to 160 acres of land in Atchison County, Ks., twelve miles from the town of Atchison, and built a cabin on the banks of the Stranger Creek.
In June he gathered local Christians for a meetings at the home of his neighbor, Caleb May, on the
banks of Stranger Creek. There he preached the old-time gospel with conviction and simplicity.
On August 17th, while visiting Atchison, Pardee was confronted by men who insisted that he sign a document supporting pro-slavery. He refused. In response, he was dragged to the Missouri River, where a decision was made on whether he would be hanged or drowned. Ultimately, they chose to set him adrift on two logs tied together. They paint a “R”-for "rough"- on his forhead and towed him into the middle of the Missouri River.
Pardee, unable to swim, managed to float a few miles south. After reaching the Kansas side of the river, he landed safely, without a scratch. Undeterred, he contiued his journey to Illinois to preach and later return and bring his family back to Kansas.
1856
Butler's resolve remained unshaken and on April 30th, he returned to Atchison. Where he was again attacked by a mob, subjected to a mock trial, and tarred and feathered (or rather "cottoned" due to the lack of feathers). The mob then accompanied him to the outskirts of town.
Pardee was one of the organizers of the Republican Party in Kansas in May and June of this year.
The Republicn's became a national party when John C. Fremont was nominated for President.
1857
On August 29th, the Pardee Church was organized at the home of Brother A. Elliott with 27 members.
Since they did not have a church building, most meetings were held in the local schoolhouse.
1858
Butler was hired by the Kansas Missionary Society to be the state evangelist.
1859
President Abraham Lincoln visits Kansas including Atchison and Leavenworth.
There is a family story about Pardee Butler and Abraham Lincoln that is related by Heywood Broun in one of his It Seems to Me columns that appeared in the New York Graphic in March of 1936.
The Rev. Pardee Butler was a mighty man in debate and most skillfuly propagandist. He wrote the
free-soil constitution for the State of Kansas, and in the eyes of some historians he is identified as the actural founder of the Republican party. His family treasures and anecdote of his return home after an
oratorical foray. “Were there any other speakers?” asked his wife.
“Other speakers!” snorted the Rev. Pardee Butler, who was accustomed to opening and closing meetings himself. But then he was reminded of an incident. “Oh, yes, “he said, “when I got done, we heard a few words from a young Springfield lawyer named Lincon.”
1860
Abraham Lincoln becomes the first Republican president.
Pardee rented out his farm so he could devote his time to preaching. He then built his family a house in the town of Pardee, so they could live near the school until, his son George was old enough to run the farm.
1861
January 29th Kansas was admitted to the Union.
April 12th the American Civil War begins.
1862-1864
Pardee goes to work for a small freighting outfit driving wagons of freight from Kansas to Colorado
to pay off the debt on his farm.
1865
The war effectively ended when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrender his troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at the Court House in Virginia.
1867
Pardee thought it would be wise to start a church in the railroad town of Farmington, Ks.
On October 6th he started the Farmington Christian Church with 23 members.
He remained firm in his abolitionist views that neither white nor black but all should have equal rights and he invited everyone to attend this church.
1872
Butler was active in the presidential campaign of 1872 speaking at the Republican State Convention at Lawrence and serving as an elector.
Though often urged by his friends to run for office, Butler invariably refused telling them …"I considered the office of a Christian preacher the highest office on earth.”
1888
Pardee used his influence for good among community and the church until his death, on October 20th, at the age of seventy-two.