Button Family in America

Colonel Joseph Button. One of Virginia's able men in politics and business, Colonel Joseph Button has been the first and only incumbent of the office of the state commissioner of insurance. He was elected to that office when the department of insurance was created in 1906, and has been personally responsible for the high state of efficiency characterizing every detail of the department. In 1910 he was elected president of the National Convention of Insurance Commissioners held at Mobile, Alabama, and was subsequently elected chairman of the Executive Committee of that organization and is now secretary-treasurer.

Colonel Button was born at Lynchburg, Virginia, October 31, 1865, and represents old New England stock. He is a descendant of Matthias Button, who came to New England with the Endicott Colony and settled at Salem, Massachusetts. He was the last survivor of that colony. The Buttons were English people who on account of religious persecution refuged for a time in Holland before coming to Massachusetts. The grandfather of Colonel Button was Charles Button, who spent most of his life in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, where he died in 1838. He married Jane Rend.

Charles W. Button, father of Col. Joseph Button, was born at Harpers Ferry, July 25, 1822, and was a leader in the affairs of his state and community. His principal vocation was journalism. He was editor of a newspaper at Harpers Ferry for many years, and held the office of postmaster there. He also represented Jefferson County in the Virginia Legislature. In 1857 he moved to Lynchburg, and during the war that followed he served as a member of the Reserves, and for many years was publisher and editor of the Lynchburg Virginian. About the close of the war he was elected a member of the Confederate Congress, but did not take his seat. His political disabilities were removed by President Andrew Johnson, so that he was restored to citizenship. Colonel Joseph Button still preserves his father's pardon. During the first administration of President Cleveland he was appointed postmaster of Lynchburg, but the appointment was not confirmed by the Senate on account of the opposition of Senator William Mahone. Charles W. Button was one of the most prominent laymen of the Methodist Protestant Church in Virginia. He represented the church in many annual conferences, and three times was a delegate to the Ecumenical Conference. He was a Knights Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. Charles W. Button retired to his farm in Appomattox County in 1894, and died there December 29 of the same year. He married Mary Elizabeth Zollickoffer, who was born in Carroll County, Maryland, March 25, 1827, and died in Appomattox County January 25, 1904. Of their children Daniel Z. died in infancy; William G. died at Harpers Ferry at the age of two years; Emma Gray died at

Lynchburg, aged ten years; Charles Fletcher was a planter and died in Appomattox County, December 22, 1919; Eugene A. was a newspaper reporter under his father and died at Lynchburg in 1897; Ann Maria died at the age of eighteen months; Caroline Virginia died in Appomattox County June 9, 1899, wife of Rev. Thomas E. Coulbourn, a Methodist Protestant minister who died while visiting in Pennsylvania in 1896; Joseph, the eighth in order of birth; and Mary Elizabeth, widow of Rev. Edwin A. Warfield, a minister of the Methodist Protestant Church and at the time of his death, which occurred at Westminster, Maryland, in March, 1922, was professor of English in the West Maryland College.

Joseph Button was educated in the public schools of Lynchburg, and as a youth was associated with his father in the newspaper business. For two years he was in the real estate and insurance business at Florence, Alabama, and followed the same line for a year after returning to Lynchburg. Colonel Button then located at Appomattox Court House, and up to 1896 edited the Appomattox Times. For the past quarter of a century his time and abilities have been fully taken up by many public duties. In 1895 he was elected clerk of the State Senate, and served until 1906. In the latter year he was unanimously chosen bv the Legislature as the first state commissioner of insurance, and since then has been reelected each four years, his last election occurring in January, 1922. The offices of the first commissioner of insurance are in the Murphy's Hotel Annex.

Colonel Button for six years served as presiding justice of the peace at Appomattox Court House. From 1896 to 1906 he was secretary of the State Democratic Committee, was a member of the committee from 1894 to 1916, finally declining further duty in that capacity and for twenty years, from 1896 to 1916, he was chairman of the Tenth Congressional District Democratic Committee. Colonel Button served as a member of the Board of Visitors of the Virginia Military Institute from 1910 to 1918 and was re-appointed in 1922 by Governor Trinkle for a term of four years. For twenty-six years he was secretary of the Virginia Debt Commission, and exercised an important influence in the final settlement of that debt. He was twice appointed on Governor Tyler's staff as an aide-de-camp, with the rank of colonel of cavalry.

Colonel Button is a member of Hill City Lodge No. 183, A. F. and A. M., is a past master of Monroe Lodge No. 252, A. F. and A. M., of Appomattox Court House, is a member of Lynchburg Chapter R. A. M., DeMolay Commandery No. 3, K. T., Acca Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and Lynchburg Lodge No. 321, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a member of the Westmoreland, Commonwealth and Country clubs at Richmond. Colonel Button owns a fine country home and farm at Walkers Ford in Appomattox County. His Richmond residence is at 819 Floyd Avenue. He is vice-president and director of the Bank of Appomattox and is a director of the First National Bank of Richmond. During the World war he was a member of the State Council of Defense, was executive secretary of the Central Liberty Loan Committee of Virginia, and during the Victory Loan drive was vice-chairman of the State Central Committee.

December 1, 1917, at Bronxville, New York, Colonel Button married Mrs. Annie (Donald) Shotwell, a native of Chesterfield County, Virginia.