[1] "His father was a Virginia planter, who, notwithstanding his property Interests, was so devoted to the cause of universal liberty that he freed his slaves and removed with his family to Ohio.

In that state, he became associated with Levi Coffin in the Underground Railroad and assisted fugitive slaves until the close of the war.

[1] Butterworth shared the racist views held by some but not all congressmen of his era, calling the Chinese "a lower race of people" and declaring that allowing them to mix with whites would create at best "degrading amalgamation but no elevating and ennobling assimilation.

"[3] He was appointed secretary of the 1893 World's Fair Columbian Exposition project at Chicago during the early 1890s and was widely recognized for his role in the success of that enterprise.

[2] He was interred in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C. His son, William Butterworth, married the granddaughter of inventor John Deere, and niece of architect Merton Yale Cady.