Orin Loomis was often heard to say that Phin.  Butler was the most courageous man he ever knew.  He was quick-tempered, but warm-hearted, and full of fun, and as honest and sincere as he was bold and fearless.  One time he was traveling, and stopped at a tavern.  The strangers present were discussing the statement that every man has his price, and each man was telling what was the least price for which he would tell a lie.  Finally one man said that he would tell a lie for five dollars.  Grandfather’s impetuous nature could stand it no longer, and he burst out scornfully:  “Tell a lie!  Tell a lie for five dollars!  Sell your manhood!  Sell your soul for five dollars!  You must rate yourself very cheap!” And then, they said, he fairly preached them a sermon on the nobility of perfect truthfulness, and the littleness and meanness of lying and deceitfulness.

My grandmother was also very conscientious, which was illustrated by the fact that on her death-bed, after giving some good advice to her daughters, she charged them to carry home a cup of coffee that she had borrowed.

An old Wadsworth friend, writing to us since father’s death, says of him:  “From a boy Pardee was remarkable for his uprightness, and bold and strict honesty, and it was a maxim among the boys to say, ’As honest as Pard, Butler.’  He and his father before him were specimens of puritanical honesty and courage, and had they lived in the days of Cromwell and in England, would doubtless have been in Cromwell’s army.”

Scarcely was the settlement begun when a school was taught in one room of a log dwelling-house.  When but three years old, father was a pupil in the first school that was taught in the new school-house, by Miss Lodema Sackett, and continued to attend school a part of every year.  Books were scarce, but he was fond of reading, and read, over and over, all that he could obtain.

The Western Reserve was settled mainly by New Englanders, who were intelligent and God-fearing men; and religious meetings were held from the first; printed sermons being read aloud when there was no preacher.  A Sunday-school was organized in Wadsworth in 1820.

The most influential man in the neighborhood was Judge Brown, an uncle of “John Brown of Ossawatomie.”  He was noted for the purity of his life, the dignity of his demeanor, and the firmness with which he defended his views.  He was a bitter opponent of slavery, and, what was strange in those days, a strong temperance man.  Before leaving Connecticut he had heard Lyman Beecher deliver his famous temperance sermons, and he came to Wadsworth with his soul ablaze with temperance zeal.  The community was strongly influenced by him, and father said that he was much indebted to Judge Brown for his temperance and anti-slavery principles.