The history presented here spans from 1717 with Claude Dutisne to 1804 and the Louisiana Purchase, 1806 and explorer Zebulon Pike’s parley with an Osage chief fifteen miles south of Butler, 1832 and Washington Irving, the Civil War era including the 1862 Battle of Fort Toothman, the 1863 burning of Butler by Order No. 11, local Civil War events described as brother against brother, and postwar Reconstruction, then continues with later themes including keeping the pioneer spirit, Governor Frederick Bates, Jefferson Highway from Winnipeg to New Orleans, and Butler as the Electric City associated with Mayor F.J. Tygard and Charles Brush.