DEATH OF AN OLD SOLDIER,

PIONEER, GOOD CITIZEN.

R. Butler, one of the oldest and most respected citizens of Neosho county, died at his home over in Centerville township last Monday, February 15, 1904. While Mr. Butler had been having poor health the past year or two, his death was a surprise as he had been feeling exceedingly well on the day and the evening of his death. The cause of death was neuralgia of the heart and the end came peacefully and without a struggle.

In the taking off of Rensselaer Butler the county has lost a good substantial citizen; the neighborhood a good neighbor, the wife a kind husband and the children an indulgent father.

We might write columns telling of the many good acts that Mr. Butler did in his life time, but when we say that although politically he was a Labor Unionist, a Greenbacker, a Populist and a Socialist, and religiously he was a Spiritualist, that he was broad enough and big enough to not let his political or religious views come between him and his friendship for all mankind, we could pay him no higher tribute. In short, he was a man—every inch of him—and he will be greatly missed by an exceedingly large circle of people, for he was a friend to every one who knew him.

He was a Union soldier during the Civil war, enlisting from the state of Massachusetts in which state he as born at Williamstown, on March 21, 1831. He came to Kansas in 1869, settling on the farm over in Centerville, where he continued to reside until his death.

The funeral services were conducted in the M. E. church in Erie yesterday by Rev. J. L. Shinn, of Chanute, a Universalist minister. The Grand Army of Erie, of which Mr. Butler was an honored member, assisted in the services and all that was mortal of him was laid to rest in the Erie cemetery.