Walter S. Butler, who has been engaged in the insurance business in Utica for nearly a quarter of a century, represents the Penn Mutual Insurance Company as general agent in a territory embracing fifteen counties and has become one of the best known men in his line in the Mohawk Valley. He was born in Utica, New York, on the 24th of August, 1878, a son of J. Milton and Harriet (Locke) Butler, both of whom were representatives of honored pioneer families of Oneida county. It was his granduncle, Gaius Butler, who surveyed and laid out the village of Clinton, south of Utica, and the grandfather of Mrs. Harriet (Locke) Butler was a charter member of the first Masonic lodge in Utica. J. Milton Butler, the father of Walter S. Butler of this review, was long prominent in the wholesale clothing business in Utica as the organizer of the firm of Roberts, Butler & Company, now the Roberts-Wicks Company, extensive clothing manufacturers. He took an active and leading part in public affairs as a supporter of the republican party and was president of the old Continental Club.
Walter S. Butler supplemented his preliminary education by a course of study in the Utica Free Academy and after attaining his majority embarked in the insurance business in his native city on the 1st of January, 1900. This has claimed his time and energies through the intervening years until the present and his success therein has been most gratifying. As general agent for the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company in a territory comprising fifteen counties he has gained an enviable position for himself among the leading insurance men of this part of the state and is one of the most valued representatives of the corporation which he serves. Mr. Butler is the vice president of the Utica Life Underwriters Association.
On the 8th of April, 1912, Mr. Butler was united in marriage to Miss Helen Street, daughter of Rev. David Street, a well-known clergyman of Utica, who passed away in this city. Mr. and Mrs. Butler are the parents of a son: W. Seward Butler, Jr., who was born on the 22d of April, 1915. Mr. Butler is a worthy exemplar of the teachings and purposes of the Masonic fraternity, while his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Westminster Presbyterian church. He also belongs to the Yahnundasis Golf Club, the Fort Schuyler Club and the City Club and is highly esteemed in both social and business circles of the city which has always been his home.