Butler County, Nebraska: History
Butler County was created on January 26, 1856 and organized on October 21, 1868.
There is some uncertainty about how Butler County got its name. The most credible consensus seems to be that Butler County is named for William Orlando Butler, a U.S. congressman from Kentucky and U.S. Army major general who served during the Mexican–American War. Butler was offered the job of Governor of Nebraska Territory in 1854 by President Franklin Pierce, but he turned it down. Regardless, Butler County was still named in his honor. The earliest references to the county being called "Butler County" are found in the journals of the Nebraska Territorial Legislature from the years 1857 and 1858.
Another common explanation proposed for the naming of Butler County is that it was named for David Butler, the first Governor of the State of Nebraska. However, Butler County was created by an act of the Nebraska Territorial Legislature on June 26, 1856, and was referred to as "Butler County" more than ten years before David Butler became Governor of Nebraska and two years before he had even moved to Nebraska from Indiana in 1859. When David Butler came to Nebraska, he settled in Pawnee County, not in the Butler County area. Confusingly, however, the name for the county seat of Butler County, David City, is also sometimes attributed to David Butler, but there are also conflicting sources concerning its origin. A second alternate explanation for the origin of Butler County's name is given in Andreas' History of Nebraska. It seems to indicate that the county might have been named for William Butler, an early settler who moved to the area in 1860 and became county sheriff in 1868. However, as noted before, the county had been in existence and had been referred to as "Butler County" well before that point in time.