Charles Butler was born at Kinderhook Landing, Columbia County, New York.

[1] He studied law in the office of Martin Van Buren at Albany, and was admitted to the bar in 1824.

He became wealthy by accumulating land at the site of Chicago, Illinois and through his investments in railways.

It was his accumulation of Illinois land and railway building that helped turn Chicago into a city.

He was a younger brother of Benjamin Franklin Butler (US Attorney General under Martin Van Buren), and a relative of (both by blood and as an in-law), as well as a business associate of William Butler Ogden, the first mayor of Chicago.