Civil War - Civil Union: 
The Story of David & Mary Elderkin

Chapter 5: Lily M. (Elderkin) Butler (1875 - 1953)

Photographs

Descendancy Chart  (to come)

For Questions or Corrections, contact:
Susan Elderkin
susan@1000friends.org

Civil War-Civil Union is copyrighted 2003

Lily worked as a teacher[i] and lived at home until she was at least 24, whereupon she followed her siblings to Montana.[ii]  Lily, however, first settled in Missoula, near where her Uncle Charles and Aunt Julia had moved, then later moved to Butte.[iii]  There she met John F. Butler, who was born in New York.  They married in 1904 or 1905[iv] and visited the family in Iowa that Christmas together.  In 1906, Lily gave birth to a girl they named Helen.[v]

There would be no more children for Lily and John.  John, who was a conductor on a railroad, died suddenly on October 10, 1912.  At first the coroner thought he may have been poisoned, but he ended up ruling it a heart attack.[vi] 

Lily found herself widowed, with a six year old girl.  Fortunately, she had an education, and she may have gone back to teaching to support herself.  She never re-married, and lived in Helena,[vii] Cedar Falls,[viii] and Whittier, California before she died April 11, 1953 in Los Angeles, of a heart attack.[ix]