The remote Fairview Union church is opened once a year for a
service by the Butler family, who lived in the nearby hollows
Georgia Butler Atkinson visits the nearby
cemetery where many of her relatives are buried
2009: The Butler family returned to the church of their youth this weekend - Fairview Union, located on a remote hilltop deep in the woods between Beech and the West Fork Rush Run.
The tiny church, closed for many years, is re-opened once a year by the Butler family for a service.
BUTLER FAMILY: Lillie Falls Butler, 88, and four of her
14 children (Rear-L to R) Faye Nichols of Otto, Peggy Hall
of Beech, Grover Butler of Otto and Frank Butler of Beech
The Butlers are descendants of Thomas Butler, who came to the Elk River area from New York, fighting and dying in the Civil War, participating in the Battle of Droop Mountain.
Butler left a wife and four children, including Milton (1857-1931) who is resting with his wife in the Fairview Cemetery.
The oldest Butler attending the event was Lillie Falls Butler, 88, who with her late husband, Don, had 14 children, seven sons and seven daughters.
Church register from long-closed church;
The Butler clan enjoys a picnic lunch
(L to R) Stella Butler Hall, Lillie Falls Butler (widow of Don
Butler) and Georgia Atkinson Butler, the other surviving child of
Roy and Martha Butler is Virginia Butler Parsons, not pictured
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