James Thadeus Butcher was born July 15, 1862, in Nevada County, Arkansas, the son of Thomas Jefferson Butcher and his wife, Lavinia Catherine Yerby. Thomas Jefferson Butcher was born in Georgia, April 5, 1825. He was a Baptist minister and came to Nevada County in 1856, Some of his charges were Mt. Zion et Cale: 014 Union near the present village of Bodcaw; and the Baptist church at Chidester in Ouachita County. Thomas J. Butcher was a charter member of the Masonic Lodge at Moscow, one of the earliest settlements in what is now Nevada County. He helped to organize the lodge at Prescott and later joined at that place. Lavinia Catherine Yerby was born Aug. 3, 1830, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Children born to the Rev. Thomas Jefferson Butcher and his wife, Lavinia Catherine Yerby were: William Henry (1850); John M, (1854); Banjamin Franklin (1856); Mary Francis (1858); Albert Lafayette (1860); James Thadeus (1662); Mary E.A. (1867); David Y. (1869). Thomas Jefferson Butcher died Oct. 19, 1886. The Nevada County Picayune, Prescott's weekly paper published at that time, carried the following: "We regret to learn of the death of the Rev. T.J. Butcher which occurred at his residence near town yesterday morning. He was one of our best citizens, an earnest consistent Christian and minister of the Gospel" His wife died Oct. 24, 1894. Both were buried at Providence Cemetery near Boughton.

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James Thadeus Butcher was married at the Moscow community, Dec. 24, 1885, to Ida Lee Horne (born Merch 26, 1866) the daughter of H.H. Horne and his 3rd wife, Catherine Francis Lewis, H.H. Horne was born Feb. 3, 1809, and died Jan 25, 1870. His wife, Catherine F. was born Nov. 14, 1822, and died March 23, 1911. They were married Sept 8, 1842, Salem (Baptist) Church, near Prescott, was organized at the home of Catherine F. Horne.

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The same year that he was married, James Thadeus Butcher, moved his family to Prescott where he worked for Richmond-Stantion Lumber Company and received the prevailing wage of one dollar ($1.00) a day. Later he moved to his father’s farm north of Moscow where their four children were born: Lillie B. (1886); Paul Jones (1889); Myrtle Lavinia (1893) married Watson Wyatt White; David T, (1895)

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James Thadeus Butcher died at Prescott, Arkansas in May 1948.