BUTTERWORTH

Posted by cathy gowdy on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 09:18:30 :

The Marin Journal
Thursday, May 7, 1914
Page 1

Another Pioneer Has Passed Away
Edward Butterworth Dies Last Thursday in San Rafael

Edward Butterworth died Thursday, April 30th, at a local hospital, after years of illness. His death brings memories to many of his friends and acquaintances of a time when both he and San Rafael were young.

An Englishman by birth and born on the anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria, he emigrated from his home in Oldham, England, in 1886 (sic) to Alaska where he was unsuccessful in prospecting.

In t he spring of 1870 he took up residence to the time of his death in San Rafael where he remained to the time of his death. Shortly after his coming to California he met and married a girl of Irish nativity whose death a few months ago hastened his.

Mr. Butterworth was a carpenter by trade and it was while engaged in this career that he met with a serious accident that disabled him for life. In 1877 while working on the shingling of the roof of the St. Vincent Orphanage one of his fellow workmen left a footbrace in place which had previously been sawed loose for removal. As Mr. Butterworth slid down the roof to the supposed security it gave way and precipitated him to the earth where he came in contact with a saw horse injuring him permanently. His wife, left with an invalid husband and two babies was forced to eke out a meager existence as best she might, and it was a long hard struggle until the maturity of the surviving sons William and Edward, under whose protection and care the old couple spent their closing years in peace and happiness.

Thursday at 9:30 o’clock a high mass was held at St. Raphael’s church for the repose of his soul, after which a sorrowful procession followed the pioneer to his interment in Mt. Olivet cemetery.

Had he lived three years longer he would have been an octogenarian.