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Submitted: 1/3/14 • Approved: 5/7/15 • Last Updated: 8/15/15 • R30099-G0-S3
PRIVATE North Carolina Line
Revolutionary War
July 15, 1759 - November 10, 1853
Born in Rowan County, North Carolina
Died in White County, Tennessee
Husband of Sarah Patterson Butram
The most common older spellings of this surname are Butram and Buttram. WILLIAM BUTRAM used the two interchangeably, but seemed to favor the version with one t most often. His name is spelled Butram on his tombstone and Buttram on the memorial in front of the courthouse in White Co., Tennessee. His son in Wayne Co., Kentucky, also named William, changed the spelling to Bertram during his life time. Some branches of the family have adopted even different ways to spell the last name. In White Co., Tennessee the spelling is now Buttrum. There are many other spellings used by the descendents of this man whose final resting place is in the Richard Bradley Cemetery.
WILLIAM BUTRAM (aka Buttram, Buttrum, Bertram, etc.) was a Revolutionary War soldier on the North Carolina line. He was born 15 Jul 1759 in Rowan Co., North Carolina to Margaret and William Buttram. He grew up there. After the Revolutionary War he returned to Rowan County for several years. He married Sarah Patterson 29 Jan 1780 in Rowan county and they had four children born in Rowan County before their house burned. William then moved his family to Iredell Co., N.C. for some years. He later moved to Lee Co., Virginia, next to Wayne Co., Kentucky, and finally to White Co., Tennessee in his last years. About 1968 the Cookeville Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) ordered a U.S. military marker for his grave and asked the historian and descendant, Professor Marshall Bertram of Tennessee Tech, to help them locate the exact spot of William's grave. Marshall had not yet found the grave with its original tombstone when the ladies ordered the marker with the supposed death year - 1848 - carved on it. It was not until Marshall found the grave that the exact date of death, November 10, 1853, was known. William Butram, with his daughter Katy and granddaughter, Mary Louisa (daughter of Willis), had been enumerated on the 1850 White Co., Tennessee Census as "Household #1420: BUTRAN, William 95, male, born NC". Little is known of his wife, Sarah Patterson, but she is believed to have died prior to his move about 1834 to White County, Tennessee.
An additional granite marker has been placed flat in front of the marble tombstone in order to add the complete (and correct) dates of birth and death for William Butram.
Photograph & Data courtesy of:
Anna Schultheis Bertram
abertram@dtccom.net
Contributed on 1/3/14 by ashaw444
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Record #: 30099