Memorial Address—James Davie Butler . 
899- 
possessing a sharp wit, and a graphic power of description,” 
For nearly forty-seven years thereafter his voice was probably 
more often heard in this community, on platform and in pulpit,, 
than that of any other of its citizens. In 1862, his alma mater 
conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D., and there¬ 
after our friend was universally known by his well-deserved 
title. 
In the reorganization of the University in 1867, incident to 
the coming of President Chadbourne, 4 Dr. Butler withdrew 
from its service, never returning to the professorial career. 
Freedom from teaching cares was at once taken advantage of 
by a trip to Europe, this time through Denmark, Bussia, Tur¬ 
key, Greece, Palestine, Egypt, Sicily, Spain, Holland and Bel- 
gium, besides countries in which he had formerly toured. Fol¬ 
lowing his home-coming, in the autumn of 1868, after an ab¬ 
sence of fifteen months, our now well-seasoned traveler spent 
the winter in a lecture tour, crossed the American continent by 
the newly-opened railroad to the Pacific (May 1869), visited 
numerous western military posts, and penetrated into the then 
almost inaccessible Yosemite—where, when lost on Mount Bro¬ 
derick, he was rescued by John Muir, the celebrated natural¬ 
ist, who had been his pupil at Madison. This adventure con¬ 
cluded, he took passage in a sailing sloop to the Hawaiian is¬ 
lands. 
For somewhat over four years thereafter, he was in the em¬ 
ploy of the land department of the Burlington & Missouri 
Piver Pailroad company, then pushing westward from Bur¬ 
lington far in advance of settlement. His services consisted 
in editing various booklets designed to encourage immigration,, 
publications appearing in many forms and in numerous lan¬ 
guages and circulating by the millions. While engaged in 
gathering material for this purpose, our peripatetic friend 
journeyed extensively through the trans-Missouri country,, 
with which he became so familiar that in later days he was en¬ 
abled to review Coues’ reprint of Biddle’s “Lewis and Clark” 
from the point of view of a geographical expert. 
4 See Thwaites, “History of the University of Wisconsin” (Madison, 
1900), p. 90. 
