2018 marks 200th anniversary of influential missionary’s birth
William Butler (1818–1899) and his wife Clementina Rowe Butler (1820–1913) were the best-known Methodist missionary couple in the late 19th century.
This year marks the 200th anniversary of William Butler’s birth.
As an adult, he had a longing for God. In 1842 he learned that an American preacher was speaking at a Methodist chapel. He was overwhelmed by the speaker’s clear presentation of the gospel. His text was Isaiah 42:3: “A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench.” He understood the mercy of Christ and surrendered his heart and soul to God.
Butler attended Wesleyan Theological Center in Didsbury, England, for two years. Then he went to western Ireland, where most people were Catholic. He had successes in revivals and preached in other parts of Ireland. He immigrated to America in 1850.
After being twice widowed, he wrote to Clementina Rowe, who lived in Ireland. She had heard him preach in revivals there. She came to America and they were married in 1854.
Two years later the Butlers sailed to India, where they were founders of American Methodist work. After their arrival, the Sepoy Mutiny broke out. They fled to the mountains for eight months.
At the end of the uprising, the two missionaries opened orphanages for children left homeless because of the rebellion.
In 1865 the church they had founded was flourishing. They returned to America, where they enthusiastically promoted foreign missions.
Clementina spoke to Methodist and Congregational women about the needs of women in India. Her appeals led to women in both denominations founding women’s missionary societies to support single women missionaries.
In 1869, Clementina was one of the founders of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Tremont Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston.
William was secretary of the American and Foreign Christian Union, an organization devoted to missions in “Catholic lands.” He and Clementina were chosen to begin Methodist work in Mexico in 1873. Following what they had done in India, they established a girls’ orphanage, a printing press, schools and church buildings.
In addition to being a missionary, William was an author. He wrote “The Land of the Veda” (1871), “From Boston to Bareilly and Back” (1886) and “Mexico in Transition” (1892).
William died in 1899 and Clementina in 1913. They are buried in Newton Cemetery in Newton, Massachusetts.
Their work continued with their children. John Butler spent 44 years as a Methodist missionary in Mexico. Their daughter, Clementina, founded the Committee for Christian Literature for Women and Children in Mission Fields.
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