Chemung Illinois Biographies

Transcribed by Jeffrey Tooley

Chemung Illinois Biographies extracted from History of McHenry County, Illinois; Chicago, Inter State Publishing Co., 1885.

Benjamin B. Butts Biography

Benjamin B. Butts, deceased, was one of the first settlers of McHenry County (Illinois). He was born in New Lisbon, Conn., October, 1805, the eldest of five children of Simon and Esther (Pettingill) Butts. When a boy he went with his parents to Monroe County, N. Y. He lived on the home farm till he was twenty-one years of age, and then learned the carpenter and joiner's trade. In June, 1837, he came West, and in 1838 settled on the farm on section 26, Chemung Township, where his widow still lives. He went to California in 1858 and died there in 1865, of heart disease. He was married Jan. 1, 1S34, to Roba A. Sprague, a native of Syracuse, N. Y., born Dec. 6, 1815, the only child of Daniel and Anna (Warren) Sprague, her father a native of New York and her mother of Massachusetts. Mrs. Butts's father died in 1816, and when she was eleven years old her mother moved to Monroe County, N. Y., where she met and married Mr. Butts. To Mr. and Mrs. Butts were born three children - Frances A., born May 24, 1840, was the first white child born in Chemung Township; she married Oliver Udell, a farmer of Alden Township; Scebra M., of Harvard, born Aug. 17, 1842, married Mary Whitmarch; Harvey W., of Harvard, born Sept. 15, 1847, married Rosa Russell. There are fourteen grandchildren. Both sons enlisted in the Rebellion in a McHenry company. Mrs. Butts, as was her husband, is a member of the Advent church. She owns a fine farm of fifty-six and a half acres, which was in a wild state when she came to the county. She and her mother and sister-in-law, Mrs. Farnsworth, were the first white women in Chemung. They lived there four weeks while their house was being built. Wolves and deer were plenty, and neighbors scarce. The Indians often passed their house, but were peaceable. Mrs. Butts is one of the very few living who came to Chemung Township in 1838. [Source: History of McHenry County, Illinois; Chicago, Inter State Publishing Co., 1885.]