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February 20, 1958
Charles Butterfield Dies at 87 After Long Illness
Charles L. Butterfield
Charles L. Butterfield, 87, one-time Sheridan farmer and later a Tama businessman, died at 3:32 a.m. Tuesday, February 18, 1958, at Mercy hospital in Marshalltown
His health began to fail in June, 1954, while he was living in California, and had been failing rapidly since last August. He spent almost two months in the Marshalltown hospital last summer for care, returning to his Tama home in September. Since then he had been in very poor health. He was returned to the hospital February 7. Death was caused by the infirmities of old age
Funeral rites for Mr. Butterfield were at 2 0'clock this Thursday afternoon at the Harrison Funeral Home, with the Rev. Paul Hoyt, pastor of the Tama Methodist church, officiating
Ben Jones, accompanied by his wife at the piano, sang "In the Garden," and "The Old Rugged Cross."
Bearers were Earl Dee, Leo Kupka, Alan Graff, Foster Wolcott, Warren Dee, and David Anthony
Interment was in the Sheridan cemetery
Charles Levi Butterfield, son of Edgar and Sarah Borst Butterfield, was born May 18, 1870, at Vinton, Iowa. He was reared at Vinton and attended the Vinton public school, graduating from high school. He then attended the Tilford Academy at Vinton
As a young man, he homesteaded a farm near Sedgwick, Colorado. While there he met Verna Dee, formerly of Sheridan township, Poweshiek county, whose parents were also homesteading in Colorado. The couple was married March 30, 1907, at Sterling, Colorado. They returned to the Tama area and Mr. Butterfield bought a 160-acre farm in Sheridan township, one mile south of the Tama county line, or 9 miles south of Tama. He operated this farm until 1920 when he retired from farming and moved to Tama
First he was in the coal business here, starting the Butterfield Coal Company in the old livery barn that stood at the corner of State and 4th streets, now the location of the Roy Scott service station
Then he built Tama's first complete auto service station at the corner of State and 5th St. He sold this station to the Cities Service Oil company in 1928. Two years later, in 1930, he built a new service station on highway 30, at the corner of McClellan St. in north Tama. He never operated this station himself, always leasing it to the Phillips 66 Oil company
He also built and leased a service station in Dysart. This station, leased to the Phillips 66 company, is still in operation
Mr. Butterfield built two houses in Tama. The first one, built in 1920, is the stucco house now owned by the Fulton family on east 9th st. The best of materials went into the house, including oak hardwood floors and trim, and a brick fireplace. He told his children later how he drove a team of horses and wagon to Cedar Rapids and hauled the brick home, each brick costing $1 in those boom times after World War I. This house was also the first in Tama to have two bathrooms, one on each floor. A special feature was a dumb waiter in the house by which milk and dairy products could be lowered into a well and cooled. This gadget made Mr. Butterfield's house the 1st one in Tama with refrigeration. Later he sold this home and bought another on Hall St. He build his present home on State St. in 1948. At one time he owned three rental houses in Tama
He was a member of the Tama Methodist church
Mr. Butterfield's wife died July 19, 1934 in a Watterloo hospital
He then married Lydia Atkins on August 27, 1947, in Vinton. She was a childhood friend of his in Vinton
At Christmas time in 1949, Mr. Butterfield bought a home in Long Beach, Calif., where he and his wife spent the winters. When he was taken ill in California in June, 1954, he spent two weeks in a hospital in Long Beach, then convalesced in his home there until the following April, 1955, when he sold his Long Beach home and returned to Tama where he lived continuously since
Mr. Butterfield is survivied by his wife; a son and daughter, Donald Butterfield of Waterloo, who operates a General Electric appliance store there, and Mrs. Theodore R (Isabelle) Miller of Lakewood, Calif
Also surviving are eight grandchildren, Dee Marie, 8, and Grey Miller, 11, of Lakewood, Calif., and the following Butterfield children who live in Waterloo: Charles, 15, Mary, 14, Donna, 12, Paula, 10, Dorothy, 9, and Ellen, 7
Two brothers also survive, George Butterfield of Bismark, N.D., and Frank, of Santa Cruz, Calif
Preceding him in death were his first wife, his parents, a son at birth; a brother, Willie Butterfield, and three sisters, Ella Butterfield, Rosa Beemis, and Amelia Small
Mr. Butterfield's daughter, Isabelle Miller, arrived here Saturday.
{Submitter comment: Charles was my mother's uncle. (My grandfather was George Butterfield.) This was from a newspaper clipping sent after Charles died. It is quite lenghty but very interesting.}
Vinton Review; Janaury 31, 1898
Sally Butterfield
Mrs. Butterfield died Monday morning at 5 o'clock at the age of 93 years, at the home of her son, J.H. Boyden. The funeral was held Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Interment in Eden Cemetery.
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