Butler Families of Johnson County

Roderick Random Butler was born at Wytheville, Virginia, 8 April 1830. His father died when he was very young. He came to Johnson County, Tennessee at the age of 19. He married Emiline Donnelly in Taylorsville.  Emiline was born in Johnson county, and her death occurred at the age of seventy-five years.  A brother of Mrs. Butler, Captain A. T. Donnelly, served in the Federal army throughout the Civil war.

Roderick studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1853. Elected to the Legislature in 1859 and voted against the secession of the state in 1861. He was arrested by the Confederates three times for treason. In 1863 he became lieutenant-colonel in the Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry. He served in Congress from 1867 to 1873 and 1887 to 1889. He also served twenty-two years in the State Legislature. He died in 1902 and is buried at Mountain View Cemetery.

Son of Roderick R. Butler: EDWARD E. BUTLER.; Mayor of Mountain City and a member of the law firm of Butler & Grayson. Born in Mountain City, on the 6th of February, 1864. Edward was the tenth of the eleven children of Roderick and Emiline Butler. He was married in Dresden, North Carolina, on the 6th of November, 1892, to Ella M. Baker, a daughter of John Baker of Ashe county, North Carolina.  Their children are : Delilah Emaline (died at the age of 4) ; William Edward, farmer in Johnson county; ;Roderick R., ;and Margaret, wife of Foster C. Brown (they resided in Georgia). ;Edward was the first mayor of Mountain City.; His religious affiliation was Methodist Episcopal.

MAST, Adam

Adam Mast, son of Joseph and Eve (Bowers) Mast, was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, March 6, 1784, and in 1807 married Elizabeth Cable, who was born March 15, 1785, a daughter of Casper Cable, who was a Hessian soldier and was captured by Washington’s forces at Trenton, New Jersey, on Christmas day of 1776. On taking the oath of allegiance he was released and went to Pennsylvania, where he married a Miss Baker, and with his wife and her brother, John Baker, he emigrated to North Carolina, making a settlement on the Blue Ridge. Later they removed to the present site of Boone, where a number of their children were born, and in 1800 they took up their abode on a tract of land in what is now Johnson county, Tennessee. Cable was a leading citizen.

Transcribed from: Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1796-1923 by John Trotwood Moore and Austin P. Foster published by S.J Clarke Publishing Co., 1923.

DONNELLY, H.C.

H. C. Donnelly, merchant and farmer, was born in this county in 1840, the youngest of thirteen children of Richard and Rebecca (Doren) Donnelly, the former born August 17, 1790, in Virginia, and the latter a daughter of Alexander Doren, an old resident of this county. The grandfather went to Rockingbam County, Va. and then to Wilkes County, N.C., when Richard was a young man, and the latter went to Washington County, Va, when of age, and afterward to Johnson County, locating near Taylorsville now Mountain City. He was a justice for many years, a Whig, and afterward a Republican. The first camp meeting ever held in this region was on his farm. His father Robert, was horn in Dublin, and was engaged in teaching and farming. Richard enlisted in the war of 1812, and served one month. Our subject was fairly educated, and now owns a fine farm of about 675 acres, besides some in other parts of the county. He is one of the firm of Donnelly & Smith, merchants at Shoun’s Cross Roads. June 13, 1866, he married M. A., a daughter of Henderson and Sarah (Baker) Shoun, natives of Johnson County, the former a son of Leonard, one of the earliest settlers of Carter County. Their children are Marietta, Joseph S., Sarah V. and Richard H. Both are Methodists. He is a Republican, and a Master Mason. His farm includes the old Leonard homestead, on which father-in-law is buried. He has been postmaster ever since 1869.

Transcribed from Godspeed’s History of TN (1896)