1834–1918

Summary

George Ide Butler grew up in a Vermont family that embraced the Millerite advent message in 1839 — five years before he was ten, the year of the Great Disappointment. He served the Seventh-day Adventist Church for thirty years (1865–1888 and 1901–1908) as pastor, conference president, and twice president of the General Conference (1872–1874 and 1880–1888). He was president of the Review and Herald Publishing Association from 1881 to 1889. He famously took strong exception to E. J. Waggoner’s teaching on the law in Galatians at the 1888 Minneapolis Conference, and was rebuked by Ellen White through letters and testimonies in the years that followed. After twelve years caring for his invalid wife in Florida, he returned to active service in 1901 with a softened spirit, served as president of the Southern Union 1902–1907, and died July 25, 1918, in Florida.

Vermont Origins (1834–1853)

Steinweg’s Lest We Forget records the family heritage: “Butler’s family was deeply rooted in American history. His grandfather, Ezra Pitt Butler, Sr., served in the American Revolution, was governor of the state of Vermont from 1826 to 1828, a councilman, judge, university trustee and pastor of the Waterbury, Vermont Baptist Church. His father, Ezra Pitt Butler, Jr., was a captain in the War of 1812. He supported temperance, anti-masonism and abolition of slavery. Into this conscientious, patriotic family, George Ide Butler was born November 12, 1834, the second of six children” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 313, ¶ 3).

The family embraced the Millerite advent message early. Steinweg records: “He was five years old when his parents accepted the news of the soon coming of Christ preached by the Millerites.” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 313, ¶ 4). After the Great Disappointment of October 22, 1844, the family remained in the advent faith — but the boy began to harbor doubts. By 1848 his mother had begun to keep the seventh-day Sabbath under Joseph Bates’s preaching, and by 1850 his father had as well. Steinweg adds: “Before long he was ordained to the ministry, though he considered himself to be merely a witnessing farmer” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 313, ¶ 6).

Butler himself, looking back at his late teens, gave a frank assessment of his earlier self as a “proud, stiff, stubborn infidel, passionate, hot headed, with little reverence for God or man” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 313, ¶ 7). He valued honesty and morality nonetheless, having been determined, in Steinweg’s words, to “shun” various worldly amusements (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 313, ¶ 7).

Conversion and Marriage (1856–1859)

In 1856, traveling on a river boat to Kansas City, Butler stepped off at Rock Island while the boat was tied up for freight. Steinweg records the moment: “By the time he returned to the steamer, he had made his decision to follow the good parts of the Bible.” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 313, ¶ 8). Returning home to Waukon, Iowa, he was baptized by J. N. Andrews; later M. E. Cornell preached at Waukon and convinced him that Ellen White’s testimonies were from God. He married Lentha Lockwood on March 10, 1859, and they had three children: Annie and twin boys, William Pitt and Hiland George.

Iowa Conference and First General Conference Presidency (1865–1874)

Steinweg records his rapid rise in the church: “Butler was elected president of the Iowa Conference in 1865. He worked earnestly to counteract the splintering effect of B. F. Snook and W. H. Brinkerhoff, who were criticizing the Whites. These men, previously president and secretary of the newly organized Iowa State Conference, had initiated an apostasy throughout the state that began with the congregation at Marion. Butler personally visited from church to church teaching the members the truth, counteracting their influence. Under his able leadership, the church in Iowa grew very strong” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 314, ¶ 10).

In 1872 Butler was elected president of the General Conference, and the conference voted that he should convert G. H. Bell’s private Battle Creek school into a college. Steinweg records the dates: “December 31, 1873 the deal was set to purchase a 12-acre site for the new college.” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 314, ¶ 12). The same paragraph records the cost and the opening: “$50,000 in pledges were raised to erect a red brick building. August 24, 1874, classes temporarily commenced in the Review building and moved into the completed building by January 4, 1875” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 314, ¶ 12).

Second General Conference Presidency (1880–1888)

Visiting a very ill Ellen White in 1880, Butler was urged by her to accept the General Conference presidency a second time. Steinweg records his reaction: “He wept, but agreed to do so” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 315, ¶ 14). His second term began in late 1880 and was a difficult one — carrying out leadership under the influence of James White, who could not or would not let go. Steinweg adds: “In spite of this pressure, when Brother White died of malaria on August 6, 1881, Butler wept as he would have for his own father” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 315, ¶ 15).

From 1881 to 1889 Butler was also president of the Review and Herald Publishing Association: “In this capacity, he exerted a mighty influence for the building up and expansion of the publishing interests of the denomination” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 316, ¶ 18). He travelled in Europe in 1883, in Australia and New Zealand in 1885.

The 1888 Minneapolis Conference and Its Aftermath (1886–1893)

In 1886 the controversy over the law in Galatians began to surface in the church. E. J. Waggoner, editor of the Signs of the Times, and A. T. Jones, editor of the American Sentinel, published their convictions on righteousness by faith in the Signs. At the 1886 General Conference Butler convoked a theological committee that voted that the “law” in Galatians referred to the “whole law”; the General Conference Board then adopted a policy that limited the publication of doctrinal views not held by the majority before the brethren of experience had examined them (per Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 316, ¶ 18).

Ellen White’s counsel to Butler at this time, in the same year, was that the Adventist papers should not be used as a one-sided platform. Steinweg quotes: “Dr. Waggoner should have just as fair a chance as you have had” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 316, ¶ 19).

Butler was too ill to attend the 1888 General Conference at Minneapolis. From his sick bed he wrote letters and telegrams urging the leadership to stand firm for the “old landmarks.” When Elder Jones and Dr. Waggoner presented their view of righteousness by faith, Steinweg records: “it thrilled Ellen White. But it was not accepted by the general body of delegates due to the influence of leaders like Butler” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 316, ¶ 20). Steinweg quotes from Ellen White’s last sermon at that General Conference: “I see the beauty of truth as the doctor has placed it before us” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 316, ¶ 20).

In April 1887 Ellen White had written Butler and Uriah Smith plainly. The companion Lest We Forget essay records her words: “I do not wish the letters that I have sent to you should be used in a way that you will take it for granted that your ideas are all correct and Dr. Waggoner’s and Elder Jones’s are all wrong” (Lest We Forget, ch. 154, p. 309, ¶ 3).

The Florida Years (1888–1901)

After 1888 Butler felt rejected by the conference and by Ellen White. Steinweg records: “Discouraged, he and his wife moved to a 110-acre farm in Bowling Green, Florida. There his wife suffered a stroke and George cared for her until her death in November 1901. He had a lot of time to think.” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 317, ¶ 21). In 1893 he wrote to S. N. Haskell acceding (in Steinweg’s paraphrase) that great good had come to the church in the added light on Christ’s righteousness.

The Lest We Forget companion essay on this period records that the years of caring for his invalid wife were a refining school. Steinweg quotes Ellen White’s 1902 affirmation: “We welcome him into our ranks once more, and regard him as one of our most valuable laborers” (Lest We Forget, ch. 154, p. 311, ¶ 21). And again, in May 1902, when Butler had returned to the field: “Elder Butler is strong in physical and spiritual health. The Lord has proved and tested and tried him” (Lest We Forget, ch. 154, p. 311, ¶ 23).

The Southern Union and the Last Years (1902–1918)

Steinweg records Butler’s return: “Butler was elected president of the Florida Conference in 1902 and held that office through 1904. From 1902 to 1907 he was president of the Southern Union. He served as a member of the General Conference Executive Committee. As a result of his able leadership, the publishing plant (Southern Publishing Association) was moved in 1906 to Nashville. Eight schools were established during his leadership with an enrollment of 300 students by 1908” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 317, ¶ 22).

In the Kellogg crisis of 1907–1908 Butler stood firmly with the testimonies. Steinweg records his reply when A. T. Jones declared he would stand by the sanitarium “testimonies or no testimonies”: “I shall stand by the testimonies, sanitarium or no sanitarium” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 317, ¶ 23).

Lentha Butler had died in 1901. On October 8, 1907, Butler married Elizabeth Grainger, a sixty-two-year-old widow and former missionary to Japan, and settled at Twin Magnolias — an orange and pecan farm in Bowling Green, Florida. He retired in early 1908 but continued to preach and travel.

Death (1918)

Steinweg records the end: “Butler’s health had declined considerably by then. In June, his doctor diagnosed he had cancer. He died July 25, 1918, in the home of his wife’s daughter and son-in-law.” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 318, ¶ 27). The same paragraph records the size of his funeral, with thirteen fellow ministers conducting the service and six more standing as honorary casket bearers.

Steinweg’s closing assessment marks both Butler’s lifetime of leadership and the lessons of his greatest crisis: “Butler’s faithfulness in the face of opposition and his dedication to building up the publishing and educational work and to defending the truth inspires to similar action believers today who face the monumental final events in the history of this earth” (Lest We Forget, ch. 155, p. 318, ¶ 28).