Thomas S. Butler

For other people named Thomas Butler, see Thomas Butler (disambiguation).

Thomas S. Butler (Pennsylvania Congressman)

Thomas Stalker Butler (November 4, 1855 – May 26, 1928) was a U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania, serving from March 4, 1897 until his death, having been elected to the House sixteen times. Thomas S. Butler was also the father of the famous Marine Corps General Smedley D. Butler.

Born in Uwchlan Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, he attended the common schools, West Chester State Normal School, and Wyer’s Academy in West Chester. He later studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1877, and commenced practice in West Chester. From 1885 to 1889 and again in 1927-1928 he served as trustee of the West Chester State Normal School. Butler was appointed judge of the fifteenth judicial district of Pennsylvania in 1888 and stood as an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1889. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1892.

Elected to Congress in his first term as an Independent Republican, he was elected as a Republican for each succeeding term. While in Congress, he was chairman of the United States House Committee on Pacific Railroads (Fifty-ninth through Sixty-first Congresses) and member of the United States House Committee on Naval Affairs (Sixty-sixth through Seventieth Congresses).

Thomas S. Butler, center, with U.S. Navy Admiral Henry T. Mayo and an unidentified Marine Lieutenant returning from France aboard USS Siboney in August 1919.

During World War I, Butler read into the Congressional Record the "bogus oath", which was falsely attributed to the Roman Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus, in which the oath taker pledges to war against Protestant Christians. The bogus oath was refuted by the Committee on Public Information, the wartime information agency of the Woodrow Wilson administration.

Butler died in office and was buried in Oaklands Cemetery, West Chester, Pennsylvania. His home at West Chester, The Butler House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

References

• West, Michael Allen. Laying the Legislative Foundation: The House Naval Affairs Committee and the Construction of the Treaty Navy, 1926-1934. Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1980.

External links

• Thomas S. Butler at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Thomas S. Butler at The Political Graveyerd
• Thomas S. Butler at Find a Grave

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by John B. Robinson	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 6th congressional district 1897–1903	Succeeded by George D. McCreary
Preceded by Irving P. Wanger	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district 1903–1923	Succeeded by George P. Darrow
Preceded by Henry W. Watson	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 8th congressional district 1923–1928	Succeeded by James Wolfenden