66. Colorful ancestor, John Lowe Butler, Bodyguard to Joseph Smith
My second great grandfather on my mother's side lived quite an amazing life. He had many health problems in his life, and yet he became strong enough to be one of the Prophet Joseph Smith's bodyguards in the last years of the Prophet's life. His Gallitan, Missouri, fight incident is well known in Church history. John Lowe Butler, was born Apr, 8, 1808, in Kentucky, to James and Charity Lowe Butler. He was not a healthy child. When he was seven years old he was stricken with inflammatory rheumatism which spread over his body from his toes to his fingertips. This disease returned once or twice a year until he was 20. When he was 19, the pain settled in his left side and his thigh and his arm began to fail him. John became so frail that his mother could carry him about in her arms. In spite of his long, continued illness, he stood six feet tall when he was 22. His extensive autobiography shows...
