Representative women of New England/Margaret J. Butler
MARGARET JANE BUTLER, whose name has come into prominence in connection with charity and reform work in Boston, was born in Sebago, Me., a daughter of John Emery and Mary Ann (Farr) McDonald, and is of Scotch descent. After taking up her residence in Boston in her early womanhood, Mrs. Butler became interested in the woman suffrage movement, and soon joined the ranks. She is a fluent speaker, and her voice has ever been raised in the causes of freedom and of philanthropy. She is closely identified with the Woman's Relief Corps, the Soldiers' Ladies' Aid Society, and was the incorporator of a charitable organization known as the Ladies' Lyceum Union. Her work has been wide and varied, and she has been an active member of the following named organizations: Keystone Chapter, No. 18, Order of the Eastern Star; Improved Order of Red Men, Degree of Pocahontas; Women's Auxiliary Board to the Scots' Charitable Society; Charles Russell Lowell Relief Corps, No. 28; Ladies' Aid Association of the Soldiers' Home in Massachusetts; Women's Charity Club; the Progressive Fraternity; Mary Washington Lodge, No. 1, Daughters of Rebekah; Garret A. Hobart Assembly, No. 383, R. S. G. F.
At her summer home in Maine numbers of poor, over-worked people have been cheered and helped by all the comforts that a good hostess can furnish, and thus enabled at the close of vacation to resume their work with renewed courage and more faith in human nature. For the past fourteen years she has held annually a May Festival, in which from two hundred to three hundred and fifty children have participated, the proceeds being expended in charity. This festival has come to be one of Boston's yearly attractions, looked forward to by many as a charming entertainment with a worthy cause for its object. For a long time Mrs. Butler's efforts were ably seconded by her husband, William S. Butler, one of the successful merchants of Boston. Mr. Butler died in 1898, and many a poor family felt they had lost a friend.
Mrs. Butler is a Spiritualist, and is one of the most successful clairvoyant physicians in the country, but has not permitted herself to become in any way bigoted or narrow-minded. When her attention has been called to persons needing assistance, she has not considered whether they were Protestant or Catholic, Jew or Gentile, but has ever been ready to help. In her own words, "I don't care whether people are black or white, blameless or blameworthy. If they are cold, I must warm them; if they are hungry, I must feed them. They are all God's children." This sentiment is typical of her. Large of heart, sympathetic in nature, frank, fearless, and outspoken, she is emphatically a type of the "new woman" that will be blessed by the coming generation.