Around Butler

Meet the Electric City! From cattle to coal mines, border ruffians to businessmen, and rockets to railroad schemes, the air around Butler, Missouri, has crackled with energy since the settlement's establishment in 1856. Ravaged by Bushwhackers and Jayhawkers and consumed in 1863 by the flames of General Order No. 11, the settlement rose from the ashes in the late 1860s and 1870s to become a hub of culture and commerce at the western edge of the Show Me State. In 1881, the capital of Bates County went electric, becoming one of the first municipalities west of the Mississippi to generate its own power, outstripping Thomas Edison's Pearl Street Station in Manhattan by almost a year. A quiet little community with a loud and vibrant history, Butler is the quintessential example of the American small-town experience.

Vance Woods, a Butler native, lives in Waco, Texas, and works as a special collections cataloger for Baylor University Libraries. Brian Phillips lives in Butler and operates the Poplar Heights Living History Farm on the outskirts of town. They were supported in this project by the Bates County Historical Society, which has been working to preserve local history since 1961.