How Butler County helped shaped America

BUTLER COUNTY, Pa. — The painting of General Richard Butler is hard to miss, right by the courthouse on Main Street.

He and his brothers were some of George Washington’s most trusted soldiers.

“Washington once said, ‘When I want something done, I ask a Butler to do it,’” said Bill May, a local historian.

Two brothers who fought alongside Butler owned a mill near the current Butler County courthouse, and donated land for this area to be the county seat.

“The title of our town originally was Tressler,” May said. “But to honor their commanding officer, they named that Butler, after General Richard Butler, who was killed there on November 4, 1791.”

The land they donated is where the old courthouse in Butler is located and still stands today.

It’s land where then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy spoke in October 1960.

Marquis de Lafayette, a general in the American Revolution, dined in a building where the Lafayette Apartments now stand, called the Mansion House, in 1825.

“He came out from that dinner and shook hands with 400 veterans of the American Revolution who had come from all over the parts of Butler County to shake that man’s, to shake the General’s hand,” May said.

U.S. Senator Walter Lowrie lived in the house behind the courthouse, next to the current Courthouse annex.

The only U.S. Senator from Butler, Lowrie was critical in helping free Frederick Douglass, one of the most important leaders of the movement to end slavery.

After Douglass escaped to England, Lowrie negotiated his freedom for $711.66

“Frederick Douglas then was granted those papers, signed by his owner. He took the boats across the ocean, and when he arrived at the port in New York City, Walter Lowrie handed him those freedom papers,” May said.

On the side of Lowrie’s home is a mural honoring “Uncle Billy” William Smith. In Titusville, Smith helped drill the very first oil well.

“The most important resource in the world to this day remains oil, as world events right now clearly demonstrate,” said local historian Steve Cicero. “And Uncle Billy was the first man to drill a well like that.”

Another mural inside the courthouse shows an event near present-day Evans City. George Washington was nearly assassinated by a Native American working with the French. The shot missed, and Washington escaped.

“That shot will represent the beginning of what becomes a global conflict, the war for empire between France and Britain, that war ends in 1753. It was known here as the French and Indian War, and that’s going to be a total British victory,” Cicero said.

There’s even more recent historical ties. Amelia Earhart spent months getting her instrument training at the Butler-Pittsburgh Airport before her solo flight across the Atlantic.

“The plane was also outfitted with the fuel tanks that carried it across the ocean at that airport. The hangar is still there,” Cicero said.

It’s all part of Butler County’s story, which has shaped America into the nation it is, 250 years later.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW

©2026 Cox Media Group