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Walter Halben Butler
Louisville Courier-Journal, December 31, 1894
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa's 4th district
In office 1891–1893
Preceded by	Joseph H. Sweney
Succeeded by	Thomas Updegraff
Personal details
Born	(1852-02-13)February 13, 1852 Springboro, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	April 24, 1931(1931-04-24) (aged 79) Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Hill Calvary Cemetery Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Political party	Democratic

Walter Halben Butler (February 13, 1852 – April 24, 1931) was a lawyer, teacher, newspaper publisher, and one-term Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa's 4th congressional district, then located in northeastern Iowa.

Biography

Born in Springboro, Pennsylvania on February 13, 1852, Butler moved to Minnesota in 1868 with his parents, who settled in Mankato, in Blue Earth County. He attended public and private schools, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1875. He was a wrestler and sprinter there, and is credited as the first to run the 100-yard dash in 10 seconds.

After studying law, he was admitted to the bar in 1875 and commenced practice in Princeton, Wisconsin. He moved to Iowa in 1876 and taught school at La Porte City until 1878, and at Manchester until 1880.

He moved to West Union, Iowa, in 1883 and became owner and publisher of the Fayette County Union. From 1885 to 1889, he served as superintendent of the Railway Mail Service's tenth division, at St. Paul, Minnesota. He returned to West Union, and resumed his former newspaper pursuits.

In 1890, Butler was nominated as a Democrat to run against incumbent Republican U.S. House Representative Joseph Henry Sweney from the 4th congressional district. After defeating Sweney in the general election as part of a Democratic landslide, he served in the Fifty-second Congress. In 1892 he was defeated in his first re-election bid, by former Republican Congressman Thomas Updegraff. Butler served in Congress from March 4, 1891 to March 3, 1893.

After leaving Congress, he returned to northeastern Iowa for five years. He moved to Des Moines, Iowa, in 1897 and to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1907. He engaged in the real estate and loan business and, later in banking. He died in Kansas City on April 24, 1931. He was interred at Forest Hill Calvary Cemetery in Kansas City.

References

1. History of Iowa, p. 35.
2. ^ Iowa Biographical Dictionary, p. 120.
3. ^ "First 10-Second Man and Legislator Dies". Jefferson City Post-Tribune. April 24, 1931. p. 1. Retrieved March 6, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.

Sources

Books

• Gue, Benjamin F. (1903). History of Iowa. Vol. IV, Iowa Biography. New York, NY: The century History Company.
• Onofrio, Jan (2000). Iowa Biographical Dictionary. St. Clair Shores, MI: Somerset Publishers, Inc. ISBN 978-0-403-09304-5.

External links

• United States Congress. "Walter H. Butler (id: B001193)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Walter H. Butler at Find a Grave

v t e Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa
1st	W. Thompson Miller Henn A. Hall S. Curtis J. F. Wilson McCrary Stone McCoid B. Hall Gear Seerley Gear S. Clark Hedge Kennedy Kopp Eicher Martin Schwengel Schmidhauser Schwengel Mezvinsky Leach Nussle Braley Blum Finkenauer Hinson Miller-Meeks
2nd	Leffler L. Clark J. P. Cook Thorington Davis Vandever Price Smyth W. Wolf Cotton Tufts Price Farwell Murphy Hayes G. Curtis Lane Rumple Wade Dawson Pepper Vollmer Hull Letts B. Jacobsen W. Jacobsen Talle L. Wolf Bromwell Culver Blouin Tauke Nussle Leach Loebsack Miller-Meeks Hinson
3rd	Allison Donnan Ainsworth Burdick Updegraff Henderson Birdsall Pickett Connolly Sweet Robinson Willford Gwynne Gross Grassley Evans Nagle Lightfoot Boswell Latham Young Axne Nunn
4th	Grinnell Loughridge Walden Pratt Deering Weller Fuller Sweney Butler Updegraff Haugen Biermann Talle LeCompte Carter Kyl Bandstra Kyl N. Smith Ganske Latham King Feenstra
5th	Kasson G. Dodge Palmer J. Wilson R. Clark W. G. Thompson J. Wilson Frederick Kerr J. Hamilton Cousins Good Cole Thurston LeCompte Cunningham N. Smith Scherle Harkin Lightfoot Grandy Latham King
6th	A. Hubbard Pomeroy Orr Loughridge Sampson Weaver Cutts J. C. Cook Cutts J. C. Cook Weaver Lacey White Lacey D. Hamilton Kendall Kirkpatrick Ramseyer Dowell Utterback Dowell Goodwin Cunningham Gilchrist J. I. Dolliver Coad Hoeven Greigg Mayne Bedell Grandy
7th	Kasson Cummings E. Gillette Kasson H. Smith Conger Hays Hull Prouty Dowell Wearin Jensen Hansen Scherle
8th	McDill Sapp Hepburn Anderson Flick Hepburn Jamieson Towner Evans Thurston Gilchrist Hoeven
9th	Orr Oliver Carpenter Pusey Lyman Reed Bowman Hager McPherson W. Smith Green Vincent Swanson G. Gillette Harrington Narey
10th	Holmes J. P. Dolliver Conner Woods Dickinson Gilchrist
11th	Struble Perkins Thomas E. Hubbard Scott Steele Scott Boies Campbell
AL	Hastings Leffler
Terr	Chapman A. Dodge

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

• 1852 births
• 1931 deaths
• People from Springboro, Pennsylvania
• University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
• Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Iowa
• Politicians from Kansas City, Missouri
• Politicians from Des Moines, Iowa
• People from West Union, Iowa
• Politicians from Mankato, Minnesota
• Lawyers from Kansas City, Missouri
• 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives