Roderick Randum Butler (Congressional Biographical Directory)

BUTLER, Roderick Randum, (grandfather of Robert Reyburn Butler), a Representative from Tennessee; born in Wytheville, Va., April 9, 1827; bound as an apprentice and learned the tailor’s trade; moved to Taylorsville (now Mountain City), Tenn.; attended night school; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1853 and commenced practice in Taylorsville; lawyer, private practice; appointed postmaster of Taylorsville by President Fillmore; major of the First Battalion of Tennessee Militia; member of the Tennessee state senate, 1859-1863 and 1893-1901; during the Civil War served in the Union Army as lieutenant colonel of the Thirteenth Regiment, Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry, November 5, 1863-April 25, 1864; delegate to the Republican National Conventions, 1864, 1872 and 1876; delegate to the Tennessee state constitutional convention, 1865; county judge and judge of the first judicial circuit of Tennessee, 1865; chairman of the first state Republican executive committee of Tennessee; delegate to the Baltimore Border State Convention; elected as a Republican to the Fortieth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1867-March 3, 1875); chairman, Committee on the Militia (Forty-third Congress); censured by the House of Representatives on March 17, 1870, for corruption in regard to an appointment to West Point; unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Forty-fourth Congress in 1874; president of the Republican State conventions, 1869 and 1882; member of the Tennessee state house of representatives, 1879-1885; elected to the Fiftieth Congress (March 4, 1887-March 3, 1889); was not a candidate for renomination in 1888; resumed the practice of law; died in Mountain City, Johnson County, Tenn., August 18, 1902; interment in Mountain View Cemetery.