Archives West Finding Aid

The Butler family papers document the history of a local Walla Walla family. Norman Francis Butler was born in Maine in 1829. He was apprenticed to a carpenter there, but in 1849 he left for Boston. He took the ship Eudones around Cape Horn to California where he tried gold mining. With the slowdown of the mines, Butler moved to the Walla Walla Valley in 1861. He was the builder of some of the early Fort Walla Walla buildings, many of the older buildings in town, and four of the first five buildings on the Whitman College campus. Norman Butler married Rebecca Westall Boggs in 1865. She died in 1885, leaving three children, Belle, Ed and Stella. In 1891, Stella married John Jacob (Jake) Kauffman. Kauffman served as Chief of the Fire Department in 1894 and 1895 and was appointed Chief of Police the following year and was elected until 1903. He became chief at the age of 26, one of the youngest in the history of the area. He later co-founded a local ice and fuel business, Tausick and Kauffman. The Kauffman's daughter Josephine married Ewing W. Stephens in 1922 and the ceremony was officiated by Whitman College President Dr. S.B. Penrose. The Stephens' had two children, John W. and Elizabeth. Elizabeth married Howard Martin in 1945. He served as a judge in the area for nearly thirty years until his death in 2008. Mrs. Martin died in 2007.