Crook County Public Library System, Wyoming
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George & Mary Etta Butts
 
George Butts was born in 1859 in Mason City, Iowa.  In 1891 he married Mary Etta Clark, who was born in 1872.  Their first son, Ross Oren, was born in 1891.  Before he was a year old, the family moved to Wyoming.  They homesteaded south of Hulett in the hills near Blacktail Creek.  Later they moved to Aladdin where George worked in the coal mines for a year or two.  Then they went back to their ranch where they built a house and barn.  George also had a sawmill on his ranch. 
 
When George and Etta first came to Wyoming, they lived in a cabin in the Peaks near where Husebys live now (still do??).  Etta managed real well.  When she had only one dress, she wore one of George’s shirts while she washed and dried the dress..  One day while picking wild fruit in the nearby hills, she put Ross on a blanket to play while she picked.  Hearing him laughing, she looked and saw a big mountain lion creeping toward the baby, switching its tail, ready to pounce.  Never hesitating, she charged, shaking her apron.  The lion turned and ran into the trees.
 
Another time Etta, George and one of the small children were going to Hulett in the wagon.  They had to cross the river at the J.H. crossing.  The river was high.  Somehow the wagon overturned and she and the baby were trapped under the wagon box, and were floating downstream.  George and a friend who was on horseback managed to get them out before they drowned.
 
They lived on their ranch for many years before moving to Hulett where George carried the mail to Alva.  He died unexpectedly in 1926, she lived until 1962.  Their children:
                Ross Oren, married Clara Miller
                Claud LeRoy, born in 1895.  Claud died of appendicitis at the ranch, when he was about 17
                Iva Mae, married Lyall Brimmer
 
According to Hulett Past and Present, George also had a daughter, Mable, by his first marriage, but Mable stayed in Iowa with her mother, except for occasional visits to Wyoming.  (Findagrave.com shows first wife was Jessie Ann Hugi Butts, born in 1870, died at the age of 18 or 19 in 1889, the year after her daughter Mabel’s birth – so who was she living with in Iowa??)