As a young slave child, Jacob Butler was owned by Richard Gardiner of Charles County, Maryland. Pension file documents showed that Gardiner died in 1848. Unmarried, with no wife or children, his property was inventoried so it could be sold off to the highest bidder. The inventory included eleven slaves, valued as follows:

George, age 27, $600

Isaac, age 23, $600

Matthew, age 19, $425

Jim, age 17, $550

Davy, age 14, $400

Jacob, age 4, $125

Letty, age 46, $250

Harriet, age 34, $425

Henry, age 21, $475

Betty, age 13, $400

Clarissa, age 6, $125

4 year-old Jacob was purchased for $100 by Richard Gardiner’s brother William Gardiner. When William Gardiner died, he bequeathed Jacob Butler to his sister Helen Gardiner.

The pension file contains the following affidavit of Frances Helen Gardiner, dated March 23, 1908.

Francis Helen Gardner being first duly sworn deposes and says: that she is personally well acquainted with Jacob Butler who is a claimant for pension... and has known him since 1860. That prior to that date the said Butler was offered for sale and was purchased by William Gardner, at the price of one hundred dollars, my husband's brother. That at the death of the said William Gardner the said Butler was bequeathed to me as a legacy, which facts are set forth in the Register of Wills Office at LaPlata, Maryland. That after the death of the said William Gardner the said Butler was compelled to go out to war and that fully five years elapsed from that time to the time when I saw him again, which was after the war. That since then I have not seen the said Butler which has been the period of about twenty years until the 16th day of March 1908, when the said Butler called on me in reference to this affidavit and I immediately recognized him as the slave owned by the said Richard Gardner, my husband's brother. That after the death of the said William Gardner said Butler was cared for by my husband Edward W. Gardner until the said Butler was called out to war.

That to the best of my knowledge and belief I believe him to be about the age of 63 years.

18-year-old Jacob Butler ran away from the Gardiner farm and enlisted in the 19th Regiment at Camp Stanton on January 4, 1864. He fought in all the battles of the 19th Regiment, and was mustered out of the Union Army on January 15, 1867 in Brownsville, Texas. 

When he returned home after the Civil War, Butler married Georgianna Jensen at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Pomfret, Maryland on August 28, 1969. Father Camilus Vicinanza, an Italian Jesuit, performed the ceremony. 

Jacob Butler died on December 21, 1912 in Port Tobacco, Maryland.