My Genealogy Hound

P. N. Butler, M. D., the oldest practicing physician of Franklin County, was born in Beaufort, S. C, May 15, 1825. His father, Edward Butler, and his mother, Eliza (Cuddy) Butler, were born, reared and married in Dublin, Ireland, soon after marriage they moved to South Carolina, and lived on a plantation, where the mother died in 1853. The following year the father came to Franklin County, and here died in 1862. Both were Episcopalians, and of their family of nine children four are now living. The oldest child now living, our subject, had good advantages for an education. After a thorough preparatory training, and after graduating from Columbia College, South Carolina, in 1844, two years later he graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, and afterward came to St. Louis to practice his profession. He remained here but a very short time, and then, finding the city well supplied with men of his profession, moved to Franklin County and located where he is now living, the same year, and where he has ever since enjoyed a lucrative practice. In 1859 he married Aurelia Picot, a native of St. Louis, born in 1839, and the daughter of Louis G. Picot, a lawyer of that city. By this union Dr. Butler became the father of seven living children, five sons and two daughters. The second son, Louis P., is preparing for the practice of medicine. The Doctor is a stanch Democrat in politics, and in connection with his profession is largely interested in farming. For over forty-one years he has practiced his profession in this county, and upon his first advent here his practice was very much scattered, he at one time being obliged to ride a distance of eighty-six miles in making the round trip. He now owns considerable property, the greater part of which he has made by the practice of his profession.