[1] He was educated in the public schools of Jamaica, and graduated from Leland and Gray Seminary in Townshend.

[1] Butler had started his legal studies in the Jamaica office of Jonathan G. Eddy while still at Leland & Gray.

[1] After graduation, he continued studying law under his uncle in the same Jamaica office that included Hoyt Henry Wheeler and Eleazer L.

[1] Butler established a law practice in Rutland, first in partnership with Joel C. Baker, then with Lyman W. Redington, and finally with Thomas W.

[4] Active in politics and government as a Republican, Butler served as a delegate to numerous city, county, and state party conventions.

[7] The appointment as an associate justice went to George M. Powers, who was serving as a judge of the Vermont Superior Court, and had been an associate justice prior to the passage of a previous law reducing the size of the state Supreme Court.

[7] Butler was selected for the resulting vacancy on the Vermont Superior Court, and resigned from the State Senate in January 1909 in order to accept.