BUTLER The county seat of Bates county, Mount Pleasant township, about 125 miles from St. Louis, was first settled by John E.Morgan,in 1851. The town contains one Christian church, one Masonic lodge, viz , Bates, No. 88, one Odd Fellows lodge, Butler, No. 122, one Academy, viz., “Butler Academy,” under the Superintendence of W. P. Greene, Esq., and an excellent institution in a prosperous condition, called the Bates County Agricultural and Mechanical Association, of which Col. James M. Cogswell is President, and J. Alexander Smith, Sec‘y. A weekly paper is published here called the Bates County Standard, Wyatt Sanford, editor and proprietor. The town is fast growing, and the inhabitants are energetic and industrious. Population 700. (Missouri State Gazetteer..., 1860)