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Local figure

Marion Butler

Marion Butler, agrarian leader and U.S. senator from Sampson County, graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1885 and served as a university trustee and member of its executive board from 1891 to 1899, standing by the university at a critical time. While still a senator he resumed the study of law there.

Source: NCpedia: Butler, Marion (Robert F. Durden, 1979)

1863–1938 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

1 indexed work is connected with this person.

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

Leonidas Polk Denmark Family Papers

Denmark, Leonidas Polk · 1861

Papers of the Denmark family, 1861 to 1966, gathered by Leonidas Polk Denmark (1892 to 1964), grandson of the farm leader Colonel Leonidas Lafayette Polk (1837 to 1892). They cover Polk's agricultural journalism, the Farmers' Alliance and Populist politics, the Civil War, World War I and the 1918 influenza. Hillsborough appears among the places.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the State Archives of NC record: Butler, Marion, 1863-1938.

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 328.73 HUN Marion Butler and American Populism Hunt, James L. · 2003

    The first full biography of Marion Butler (1863 to 1938), who led North Carolina's Farmers' Alliance while still in his twenties, went on to head the national Alliance, held a U.S. Senate seat as a Populist, 1895 to 1901, and chaired the national party through the 1896 and 1900 campaigns. James L. Hunt follows him on through disfranchisement, Progressive-era Republican politics and the New Deal. UNC Press published it in 2003; 338 pages.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 4 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Populist district conventions at Hillsborough nominate William Merritt for Congress and W. P. Bynum Jr. for solicitor The Third party (Populist) convention of the Fifth Congressional District met at Hillsborough and nominated Dr. William Merritt of Person County for Congress, and a Populist judicial convention the same day named W. P. Bynum Jr. of Guilford, a Republican, for solicitor. Democratic papers charged that Marion Butler had the Merritt nomination made to draw votes from A. W. Graham and help Thomas Settle. People: Marion ButlerSearch the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), October 6, 1894, p. 3
  2. President Winston turns back a legislative effort to cut the university's funding Two years after the move to confine the university to graduate study failed, church-college allies in the 1895 General Assembly tried to shrink its state appropriation; Winston rallied alumni legislators and prevailed after Populist leader Marion Butler came out for the university. Students met him at the west gate on his return and escorted his hired coach and four to a bonfire and celebration at Gerrard Hall. People: Marion ButlerSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 18
  3. Alumni pledge money for an Alumni Hall at the centennial banquet At the banquet marking a hundred years since the university opened, alumni and classes pledged gifts toward an Alumni Hall, led by Julian S. Carr with $3,000 and Thomas M. Holt with $1,000. The building, modeled on the Boston Public Library, had its cornerstone laid in 1898. People: Julian S. Carr, Marion Butler, David Gaston Worth, Bennehan CameronSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 523
  4. Former senator Marion Butler addresses the literary societies' commencement banquet Invited by the Dialectic and Philanthropic societies, Butler gave the evening address at their commencement banquet, reading from his own 1885 graduation oration and setting out the industrial growth of the South since then.Search the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 654

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 2 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Marion Butler, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Research sources

Resources picked for this person, each with a note on what it holds. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further.

Background

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Marion Butler Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

Local help

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Books about Marion Butler

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Searched with the Library of Congress heading Butler, Marion, 1863-1938, which helps separate this person from others with the same name. The historical records searches look for the name as written, so they can turn up other people with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.

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