How Two Maine Families Helped Build Minnesota

From Maine to Minnesota

A family Bible. Two brothers. Two families from neighboring towns in Maine. And a journey that connected them to the founding of two Minnesota communities.
This is the story of my Butterfield and Ellsworth ancestors and the legacy they left behind.

Chapter 1: One Question

Every family has stories. Some are passed down around the kitchen table. Others are tucked away in old photographs, handwritten letters, or family Bibles. Many are forgotten with time. For years I had been interested in my family's history, but one discovery changed everything. As I began researching my genealogy, I noticed something that immediately caught my attention. The Butterfield family came from Farmington, Franklin County, Maine. The Ellsworth family came from Salem Township, Franklin County, Maine. The two communities were only about twenty miles apart. I remember looking at the map and thinking, That can't just be a coincidence. How could two families from the same county in Maine eventually become part of the same family in Minnesota?
That single question became the beginning of an incredible journey. I had no idea it would eventually connect my family to two Minnesota communities and completely change how I viewed my own history.

Chapter 2: The Family Bible

As my curiosity grew, my brother Mike, who has done much of our family's genealogy research, sent me photographs of an old Butterfield family Bible that has been passed down through our family.
What makes that Bible even more special is that it isn't sitting in a museum or historical archive. It is still in our family, kept at my dad's home in Utica, Minnesota. When I opened the photographs Mike sent me, I knew I was looking at something important.
The pages were worn with age. The handwriting had faded over time, yet someone generations ago had carefully recorded the births of their children, never imagining that more than two centuries later their descendants would still be reading those same words. One page immediately captured my attention.
Written there were the names of two brothers.
Henry Samuel Butterfield, born October 25, 1773.
James Butterfield, born January 1, 1786.
At first they were simply names written in faded ink. But as I compared those entries with FamilySearch, census records, newspaper articles, and historical documents, those names became real people with remarkable connections to my family's story.
That old Bible became one of the most important pieces of evidence in my search.

Chapter 3: Two Families Become One

As I continued researching, everything began to fall into place.
James Butterfield married Anna Clark. Their daughter, Emily Butterfield, married Samuel A. Campbell. Emily and Samuel had a daughter named Emma Georgiana Campbell.
Emma married Benjamin Ellsworth.
Suddenly, the connection I had been searching for made sense.
The Butterfields from Farmington, Franklin County, Maine.
The Ellsworth’s from Salem Township, Franklin County, Maine.
Two families whose roots were only about twenty miles apart in the same Maine county eventually became one family through the marriage of Benjamin Ellsworth and Emma Georgiana Campbell.
Benjamin and Emma settled in Utica, Minnesota, where the Ellsworth family became instrumental in founding the town. Their home was located along what is now Highway 14 in Utica.
Benjamin Ellsworth and Emma Georgiana Campbell Ellsworth are my great-great-grandparents.
For the first time, I wasn't simply tracing names on a family tree.
I was discovering my family.

Chapter 4: Two Brothers, Two Paths

As I continued following the Butterfield family, I became curious about the other brother whose name appeared on that same Bible page.
Henry Samuel Butterfield.
What happened to his family? The answer surprised me.
Henry's grandson was James Garrison Butterfield. As I searched old Minnesota newspapers, his name appeared again and again. James Garrison Butterfield worked as the master mechanic for the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad. He later became associated with Butterfield Township in Watonwan County, Minnesota, where historical newspaper accounts describe him operating a very large farm. One 1874 account reported that J. G. Butterfield had approximately 1,000 acres planted.
The historical evidence becomes particularly interesting when the name of Butterfield itself is considered. Some histories have attributed the name to a man named William Butterfield. However, during my research, someone at the Watonwan County Historical Society told me they had found no William connected with the town. Meanwhile, contemporary newspaper records place J. G. Butterfield directly in Butterfield Township during the years surrounding the community's early development.
The evidence I have found makes me believe James Garrison Butterfield may very well be the Butterfield for whom the community was named.
The investigation continues, but each newspaper article, census record, and historical document brings another piece of the story into focus.

Chapter 5: Looking at the Same Page

One realization still amazes me.
The same page in our family Bible records the births of two brothers. One brother, James Butterfield, became my direct ancestor. His granddaughter, Emma Georgiana Campbell, married Benjamin Ellsworth, joining the Butterfield and Ellsworth families.
The Ellsworth family would become instrumental in the founding of Utica, Minnesota. The other brother, Henry Samuel Butterfield, became the grandfather of James Garrison Butterfield, whose life became closely connected with the early history of Butterfield, Minnesota.
Two brothers.
Two branches of one family.
Two Minnesota communities.
And more than two hundred years after their births were carefully written into that family Bible, their stories came together again through my search to understand where my family came from.
I began digging deeper because I noticed that the Ellsworth’s and Butterfields both came from Franklin County, Maine.
I thought there had to be a connection.
There was.

Chapter 6: Why I Created Collecting Stories

This journey changed the way I think about family history. It made me realize how close we come to losing our stories. If my brother Mike hadn't done so much of our family genealogy research... If he hadn't sent me those photographs of the Butterfield Bible...
If my dad hadn't kept that Bible safe in his home in Utica...If old newspapers and census records hadn't survived...I might never have understood how all these pieces fit together. My other brother, Jeremiah, is also preserving our family's history by writing a book about the Ellsworth family. In different ways, each of us is helping make sure these stories aren't forgotten. For me, that desire to preserve history became Collecting Stories. Because every family has treasures that aren't measured in dollars.
They're measured in memories.
In photographs.
In voices.
In handwritten names inside an old family Bible.
And in the stories of people who lived generations before us.
One day, I hope someone discovers a story preserved through Collecting Stories and feels what I felt when these pieces of my own family's history finally came together.
A connection to the past.
A sense of belonging.
And pride in the people who came before them.
Because every family has a story.
Every life matters.
And every story deserves to be remembered.
This journey is far from over.
There are still questions to answer, records to find, and stories waiting to be discovered.
But one thing I know for certain is that two families from Franklin County, Maine, eventually became one family in Minnesota.
And generations later, their story is still being told.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

This story is based on my family’s ongoing research using original family records, census records, newspaper archives, historical documents, and genealogy resources. Family history is always a work in progress, and as new records are discovered, this story will continue to grow.

If you have information, photographs, or memories about the Butterfield or Ellsworth families, or the early history of Utica or Butterfield, Minnesota, I would love to hear from you.

Every story helps preserve our shared history.

BUTTERFIELD, MINNESOTA

Connected to the legacy of James Garrison Butterfield and his contributions to the community.