Archibald Willingham Butt (1865 - 1912)

Born 26 Sep 1865 in Georgia, United States

Ancestors

Died 15 Apr 1912 at age 46 in Atlantic Ocean

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Biography

Family and Early Life

Major Archibald Willingham Butt, 45, was born on 26 September 1865 in Georgia, the son of Joshua and Pamela Butt. ^[1]

A resident of Washington DC, USA, Major Butt boarded the Titanic at Southampton with his friend Francis D. Millet. Travelling as a first class passenger (ticket number 113050, £26 11s), Major Butt occupied cabin B-38 .

An influential military aide to President William Howard Taft and President Theodore Roosevelt, Archibald Butt was born into a prominent Augusta, Georgia, family. After his graduation in 1888 from the University of the South in Tennessee, Butt began a career in journalism, first writing for the Louisville Courier Journal and later as a reporter in Washington for a group of Southern newspapers. While working in Washington he became secretary of the Mexican Embassy with General "Matt" Ransom, Confederate officer and former United States senator from North Carolina.

In 1898 Butt left Mexico to enter the United States army as a lieutenant during the Spanish-American War, and decided to make the military a second career. He served in the Philippines from 1900 to 1906, then in Cuba before becoming military aide to President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908. Butt's health began to deteriorate in 1912 because of his attempts to remain neutral during the bitter personal quarrel between Roosevelt and Taft.

Census

"United States Census, 1910,"^[2]

Archibald M Butt Head Male 45 Georgia

Richard C Moore Lodger Male 29 Missouri

Enrique Kennedy Servant Male 23 Philippines

Titanic

Needing rest, he took six weeks' leave from the White House and sailed for Europe with his close friend Francis Millet, who was en-route to Rome on business at the American Academy which he directed. They were returning to Washington on the Titanic .

After the Disaster

Following the disaster rumours circulated that Marie Grice Young had conversed with Major Butt during the sinking and she was forced to write to the president to set the record straight.

After their deaths the Millet-Butt Memorial Fountain was erected to their memory in Washington, DC.

Sources

1. ↑ "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVTM-3DL2 : accessed 7 August 2022), Archibald Willingham Butt, Georgia, United States, 15 Apr 2012; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing Augusta Chronicle, The, born-digital text.
2. ↑ "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKL8-28X : accessed 1 November 2019), Archibald M Butt, Precinct 3, Washington, District of Columbia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 48, sheet 13A, family 136, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 150; FHL microfilm 1,374,163.

• https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/archibald-butt.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Butt