John George Butler

Ordained in 1848, he became pastor of the St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Washington, D.C. in 1849, serving there twenty-four years. He was one of the first regimental and hospital chaplains appointed by President Abraham Lincoln at the outbreak of the American Civil War. He also served as chaplain to George Atzerodt, one of Lincoln's assassins, assuring him of divine compassion even to the gallows.^[3] At the end of the war he returned to Washington and was elected Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives.

He was the organizing pastor of the Luther Place Memorial Church, in Washington, D.C., founded in 1873. He was also responsible for the heroic statue of Martin Luther in Luther Place, erected in 1884 on Luther's 400th anniversary.^[1]

Butler served as Chaplain of the Senate (1886–1893), and as professor of church history and homiletics at Howard University.^[4] He died at the age of 83, on August 2, 1909, in his home, in Washington, D.C.^[5]

John George and Ann E. Butler were the parents of Ella C. Butler, Dr. William K. Butler, Charles H. Butler (who was also a Lutheran pastor), and Grace E. Butler.^[6]