02/07/2025
Happy birthday, Ovid Butler! 🎉
Happy birthday, Ovid Butler! 🎉 In honor of Founder's Day, we celebrate the history behind Butler University.
Ovid Butler was born on February 7, 1801 in Augusta, New York. Ovid (1801-1881) was a schoolteacher, lawyer, journalist, land developer, abolitionist, and one of the founders of Butler University. Born in New York, he moved to Indiana with his parents and siblings around the age of seventeen. In 1825, he moved to Shelbyville, where he met hist first wife Cordelia Cole (1809-1838), whom he married in 1827. Nine years later, Ovid moved his family to Indianapolis, where he established a law practice; his father Chauncy also moved with them to become the preacher at Central Christian Church, a Disciples of Christ congregation. Ovid married his second wife, Elizabeth Anne Elgin (1818-1882), in 1840. Ovid experienced ill health in 1847, and by 1849, he had retried from his law practice.
Around the time of his illness, Ovid became more politically active. As a staunch abolitionist, he helped organize the Free Soil Party (1848-1852), which consisted of anti-slavery Democrats and Whigs. In the same year, he began publishing "The Free Soil Banner" and promoted the party's initiatives and advocated for the abolition of slavery. He later helped establish "The Indiana Free Soil Democrat" newspaper, which eventually merged with "The Indianapolis Journal". As the 1850s continued, the national Free Soil Party declined, and in 1854, Ovid and other Hoosier party members and abolitionists helped found the original Republican Party.
In 1847, Ovid involved himself with the initiative to found a Disciples of Christ university in Indiana. He served on the initial five-person committee to consider proposed sites for the institution, and after a few years of delay, he was chosen at the 1849 Disciples of Christ state meeting to lead the seven-person committee to draft the legal charter. Having purchased approximately twenty-five acres of farmland north of Indianapolis's Mile Square in 1846, he provided around twenty acres near his house (known as "Forest Home") to be used as the first campus. This campus was located along what we now know as College Avenue and near the I-65 and I-70 split in downtown Indianapolis.
Ovid was involved in initial fundraising and promotion for the institution, which was first known as North Western Christian University. Additionally, Ovid sought donations to help its growth and led the Board of Directors until 1871. In 1877, the Board - against Ovid's wishes - renamed the institution to Butler University in his honor.
Want to learn more about the history of Butler University? Visit our exhibit "Butler University Founder’s Celebration: A Historical Exhibit from Special Collections, Rare Books, and University Archives" in Irwin Library now through the end of February. You can find this exhibit on the first floor of the library behind our fountain.
