Walter Halben Butler

Walter Halben Butler (February 13, 1852 – April 24, 1931) was a lawyer, teacher, newspaper publisher, and one-term Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa's 4th congressional district, then located in northeastern Iowa.

Born in Springboro, Pennsylvania, Butler moved to Minnesota in 1868 with his parents, who settled in Mankato, in Blue Earth County. He attended public and private schools, and was graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1875. After studying law, he was admitted to the bar in 1875 and commenced practice in Princeton, Wisconsin. He moved to Iowa in 1876 and taught school at La Porte City until 1878, and at Manchester until 1880. He moved to West Union, Iowa, in 1883 and became owner and publisher of the Fayette County Union. From 1885 to 1889, he served as superintendent of the Railway Mail Service's tenth division, at St. Paul, Minnesota . He returned to West Union, and resumed his former newspaper pursuits.

In 1890, Butler was nominated as a Democrat to run against incumbent Republican U.S. House Representative Joseph Henry Sweney from the 4th congressional district. After defeating Sweney in the general election as part of a Democratic landslide, he served in the Fifty-second Congress. In 1892 he was defeated in his first re-election bid, by former Republican Congressman Thomas Updegraff. Butler served in Congress from March 4, 1891 to March 3, 1893.

After leaving Congress, he returned to northeastern Iowa for five years. He moved to Des Moines, Iowa, in 1897 and to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1907. He engaged in the real estate and loan business and, later, in banking. He died in Kansas City on April 24, 1931. He was interred in Forest Hill Cemetery.

References

• United States Congress. "Walter Halben Butler (id: B001193)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. 

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa
1st	W. Thompson Miller Henn A. Hall S. Curtis J. F. Wilson McCrary Stone McCoid B. Hall Gear Seerley Gear S. Clark Hedge Kennedy Kopp Eicher Martin Schwengel Schmidhauser Schwengel Mezvinsky Leach Nussle Braley Blum
2nd	Leffler L. Clark J. P. Cook Thorington Davis Vandever Price Smyth W. Wolf Cotton Tufts Price Farwell Murphy Hayes G. Curtis Lane Rumple Wade Dawson Pepper Vollmer Hull Letts B. Jacobsen W. Jacobsen Talle L. Wolf Bromwell Culver Blouin Tauke Nussle Leach Loebsack
3rd	Allison Donnan Ainsworth Burdick Updegraff Henderson Birdsall Pickett Connolly Sweet Robinson Willford Gwynne Gross Grassley Evans Nagle Lightfoot Boswell Latham Young
4th	Grinnell Loughridge Walden Pratt Deering Weller Fuller Sweney Butler Updegraff Haugen Biermann Talle Le Compte Carter Kyl Bandstra Kyl N. Smith Ganske Latham King
5th	Kasson G. Dodge Palmer J. Wilson R. Clark W. G. Thompson J. Wilson Frederick Kerr J. Hamilton Cousins Good Cole Thurston Le Compte Cunningham N. Smith Scherle Harkin Lightfoot Grandy Latham King
6th	A. Hubbard Pomeroy Orr Loughridge Sampson Weaver Cutts J. C. Cook Cutts J. C. Cook Weaver Lacey White Lacey D. Hamilton Kendall Kirkpatrick Ramseyer Dowell Utterback Dowell Goodwin Cunningham Gilchrist J. I. Dolliver Coad Hoeven Greigg Mayne Bedell Grandy
7th	Kasson Cummings E. Gillette Kasson H. Smith Conger Hays Hull Prouty Dowell Wearin Jensen Hansen Scherle
8th	McDill Sapp Hepburn Anderson Flick Hepburn Jamieson Towner Evans Thurston Gilchrist Hoeven
9th	Orr Oliver Carpenter Pusey Lyman Reed Bowman Hager McPherson W. Smith Green Vincent Swanson G. Gillette Harrington Narey
10th	Holmes J. P. Dolliver Conner Woods Dickinson Gilchrist
11th	Struble Perkins Thomas E. Hubbard Scott Steele Scott Boies Campbell
AL	Hastings and Leffler
Terr	Chapman A. Dodge

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov.