This is a biography of Pardee Butler, written from the point-of-view of his daughter, Rosetta Butler Hastings. He was a farmer and Restoration Movement preacher who lived in Kansas and was involved there in the run-up to the American Civil War. He is remembered in Kansas history for being set adrift on the Missouri River on a raft by pro-slavery men for his abolitionist beliefs.

Rev. Pardee Butler was born at Skaneateles, Onondaga County, New York, in 1816, the son of Phineas and Sarah Pardee Butler. His family migrated to Wadsworth, Medina County, Ohio, in 1818, and to Sandusky Plains, Ohio, in 1839. He married Sibjl S. Carleton, daughter of Joseph Carleton, at Sullivan, Ashland County, Ohio, in 1843. Their family migrated to Iowa in 1850, to Illinois, and in 1855 to Kansas. He was a minister, and fought against slavery, and for prohabition. He died at his home near Farmington, Kansas, in 1888.

Excerpt from Personal Recollections of Pardee Butler: With Reminiscences My father's ancestors were from New England. His father, Phineas Butler, came from Saybrook, Con necticut, where the Congregational Churches framed the Saybrook platform. His mother's people, the Fardees, came from Norfork, Connecticut. The Fardees were said to have been descendants of the French Huguenots. Ebenezer Pardee emigrated to Marcellus, now known as Skaneateles, Onondaga Co., New York. There he died in 1811, leaving his wife Ann Pardee, (known for many years as grandmother Pardee) a widow, with nine sons and two daughters. The eldest daughter, Sarah Pardee, was there married in 1813, to Phineas Butler; and there my father, who was the second of seven children, was born, March 9, 1816. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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Despite the immense body of literature about the American Civil War and its causes, the nation’s western involvement in the approaching conflict often gets short shrift. Slavery was the catalyst for fiery rhetoric on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line and fiery conflicts on the western edges of the nation. Driven by questions regarding the place of slavery in westward expansion and by the increasing influence of evangelical Protestant faiths that viewed the institution as inherently sinful, political debates about slavery took on a radicalized, uncompromising fervor in states and territories west of the Mississippi River. Busy in the Cause explores the role of the Midwest in shaping national politics concerning slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War. In 1856 Iowa aided parties of abolitionists desperate to reach Kansas Territory to vote against the expansion of slavery, and evangelical Iowans assisted runaway slaves through Underground Railroad routes in Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska. Lowell J. Soike’s detailed and entertaining narrative illuminates Iowa’s role in the stirring western events that formed the prelude to the Civil War.