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would be the longest-lived, and were followed into the business by several of their own sons. By 1929, when
Butterworth's son Gilbert was managing the business, it had already remained in the hands of a single family longer than any other Seattle funerary business. It would retain that status nearly until the family sold the business to
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was convicted over one of the several patients she starved to death, Butterworth & Sons were implicated in the scandal, because they had cremated one of her victims, then produced a different, less emaciated body for the funeral. The mortuary was not convicted of any wrongdoing, but
Hazzard went
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The business was soon renamed E. R. Butterworth & Sons. Five of his sons joined him in the business: the aforementioned
Gilbert Butterworth and his half-brothers Charles Norwood Butterworth, Frederick Ray Butterworth, Harry Edgar Butterworth, and Benjamin Kent Butterworth. Gilbert and Frederick
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article describes the building, still extant, as "eautifully appointed in stained mahogany, art glass, ornamental plaster and specially designed brass and bronze hardware…" The basement, accessible through Post Alley at the rear, is now (as of 2009) home to Kells Irish
Restaurant & Pub.
408:(which began in 1897), parts of Seattle were dangerous and violent. Undertakers were paid $ 50 per body to take dead bodies off the street; Butterworth & Sons partook of that business. Butterworth, the city's leading undertaking business of the period, also handled many victims of the
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in 1998, by which time it was one of the city's longest-running family-owned business of any type. The last
Butterworth to run the business—which was by then Butterworth-Manning-Ashmore, after a series of mergers—was Edgar's great-great grandson, Bert Butterworth Jr.
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From the age of 16—that is, roughly from the time of the family's return to
Massachusetts—he was the prime breadwinner in his family. He worked for a time as a hatter; then, still in his teens and despite a limited formal education, he began to study law and was
176:, where he went into the undertaking business in a bigger way. He purchased a controlling interest in the Cross & Co. Undertakers located in the Masonic Temple that then stood on the northeast corner of Second Avenue and Pike street.
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was the city's first custom-built modern mortuary. Jeannie Yandel in 2009 described it as "The city's first place for comprehensive death-related services from corpse retrieval to coffin sales." The building had the first
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in August of that year. He came with the intent of engaging in stock-raising, but that enterprise was not yet under way in
Eastern Washington and Butterworth correctly gauged that Washington west of the
157:), where Butterworth set up a small furniture business. He served as a member of the first city council of Centralia and later as the city's mayor; he also served two terms was in the
128:" home, grieving for his wife and newborn child, both of whom had just died. With no lumber available on the grasslands, Butterworth fashioned a coffin from his own wagon box.
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354:. During Butterworth's lifetime, his business annually forgave the debts of customers who were not able to pay. Butterworth & Sons were also early adopters of the
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Initially continuing in the furniture business, he also went into the business of selling coffins; he stocked a line of ready made coffins manufactured in
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Butterworth was a pioneer of the modern approach to the business of undertaking. Clarence Bagley credits him as the likely coiner of the terms
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165:" hit the region, Butterworth was called upon to make coffins, which is the point at which he effectively entered the undertaking business.
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Clarence B. Bagley, History of King County
Washington, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago-Seattle, 1929, Volume III, pages 781-785.
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Although the family is no longer in the business, the name lives on in the
Butterworth-Arthur Wright Chapel at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery on
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In 1923, the business moved again, to a building on the northeast corner of
Melrose Avenue and Pine Street, also extant as of 2009.
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588:, Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, October 1, 2008, p. 39. Accessed online 2009-11-01.
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78:, broke out, Edgar Butterworth tried to enlist but he was too young. In 1863, the family returned to Massachusetts.
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in Massachusetts just after he reached the age of 21. In 1869, he married Grace M. Whipple, a direct descendant of
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and in 1876 to the rangelands of southwest Kansas, where he became a cattleman. He also hauled the bones of dead
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The Butterworth building at Melrose and Pine, photographed 2006. Now the Pine Box (left) and lawyer's offices.
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west of the Cascades. The following spring the Butterworths relocated a short distance to Centerville, (later
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Inevitably, not all of the corpses handled by Butterworth had died peacefully. During the years of the
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techniques that now distinguish American funerary traditions from those more common in Western Europe.
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Historic District, although the market was not founded until 1907. The building has been listed on the
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5 Generations Of Tradition Laid To Rest -- Butterworth Funeral Home Sold To New Orleans-Based Chain
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He was a member of numerous fraternal organizations. He helped organize the Seattle lodges of the
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From Second and Pike, the business moved to 1425 Second Avenue (later the 1896–1929 location of
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department store); then to 1426-28 Third Avenue; and on October 1, 1903, to the custom built
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There, on the plains of Kansas, he also had his first occasion to make a
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Historic Seattle Nominates Eitel Building for City Landmark Designation
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54:. His father was William Ray Butterworth; his mother's name was Eliza
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was not cattle country. Instead, he built the first steam-powered
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125 miles (201 km) to the nearest railroad where he received
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E. R. Butterworth & Sons on Seattle's Third Avenue in 1900
529:, HistoryLink, September 18, 1999. Accessed online 2009-11-01
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at 1921 First Avenue. 1921 First Avenue now falls within the
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50:. His paternal grandfather, Noah Butterworth, served in the
516:(Historic Seattle), June 2006. Accessed online 2009-11-01.
697:, Listings on imortuary.com. Accessed online 2009-11-01
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motor equipment with special designed bodies" as their
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Bar Exam: Spirits and Ghosts at Capitol Hill's Chapel
22:(March 3, 1847 – January 1, 1921) was an American
26:, believed to have coined the professional terms
492:, February 21, 1998. Accessed online 2009-11-01.
136:In 1881 the Butterworths moved farther west, to
685:, October 27, 2009. Accessed online 2009-11-01.
662:"The Pine Box: A Glorious Place to Drink Beer"
556:Soul of the City: The Pike Place Public Market
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412:pandemic. Later, when health faddist doctor
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279:National Register of Historic Places
62:family. In 1857 his family moved to
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74:in that frontier region. When the
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739:People from Centralia, Washington
729:People from Newton, Massachusetts
48:Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts
618:Seattle's Coziest Embalming Room
363:Independent Order of Odd Fellows
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367:Ancient Order of United Workmen
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375:Independent Order of Foresters
97:In 1873, Butterworth moved to
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579:Historic Places in Washington
161:. When an epidemic of "black
180:E. R. Butterworth & Sons
734:Businesspeople from Seattle
527:Bon Marché Department Store
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724:American funeral directors
117:10 per ton (907 kg).
58:Norwood, also from an old
284:The Butterworth Block or
677:Bethany Jean Clement,
414:Linda Burfield Hazzard
132:Becoming an undertaker
695:Seattle Funeral Homes
99:Saint Louis, Missouri
42:A slow migration west
20:Edgar Ray Butterworth
550:Alice Shorett &
514:Preservation Seattle
379:Woodmen of the World
286:Butterworth Building
281:since May 14, 1971.
259:Stewart Enterprises
170:Olympia, Washington
84:admitted to the bar
52:American Revolution
623:2009-12-12 at the
584:2009-05-07 at the
508:2009-08-05 at the
501:Christine Palmer,
371:Knights of Pythias
90:, a signer of the
76:American Civil War
643:Stuart Eskenazi,
564:978-0-295-98746-0
275:Pike Place Market
271:Butterworth Block
159:state legislature
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714:1847 births
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417:to prison.
410:Spanish flu
395:Arctic Club
317:columbarium
255:New Orleans
60:New England
708:Categories
163:diphtheria
151:flour mill
138:Washington
103:Fort Scott
72:Sioux Wars
356:embalming
348:mortician
338:Character
313:crematory
155:Centralia
68:Minnesota
35:mortician
621:Archived
582:Archived
506:Archived
385:and the
365:and the
344:mortuary
321:Cadillac
291:elevator
142:Chehalis
29:mortuary
629:KUOW-FM
325:hearses
293:on the
257:–based
174:Seattle
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381:, the
377:, the
373:, the
126:dugout
122:coffin
107:Kansas
421:Notes
111:bison
560:ISBN
346:and
315:and
115:US$
32:and
56:née
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