Early Life
Butler was born in Wytheville, Virginia, on April 9, 1827, the youngest son of George Taylor. His father died before Roderick was one year old. At age 13, he was bound out as an apprentice to John Haney of Newbern, Virginia, to learn the tailor's trade. After a six-year apprenticeship, he moved to Taylorsville, Tennessee (modern Mountain City) to work as a tailor.
At the age of 21, Butler began reading law with Carter County attorney Carrick W. Nelson. He was admitted to the bar in 1853, and practiced in Johnson County and Carter County in partnership with Nelson until the outbreak of the Civil War.
At a young age, Butler aligned himself with the Whig Party. He was appointed postmaster of Taylorsville by President Millard Fillmore, and was elected to a county judgeship in 1855. He was also a major of the First Battalion of the Tennessee Militia, having been elected to the rank around 1850.
Read more about this topic: Roderick R. Butler
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“In early times, before the floods swept across the world, there was life, albeit odd, as one can see from the fossils of mammoth bones, and there was the regime of Prince Metternich.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“I would like you to understand completely, also emotionally, that I’m a political detainee and will be a political prisoner, that I have nothing now or in the future to be ashamed of in this situation. That, at bottom, I myself have in a certain sense asked for this detention and this sentence, because I’ve always refused to change my opinion, for which I would be willing to give my life and not just remain in prison. That therefore I can only be tranquil and content with myself.”
—Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937)