James Butler

Life Early years Butler was born in 1855 in County Kilkenny, Ireland, on farming property held by his family for hundreds of years. He returned to New York in under two years, He had a reputed net worth of $30 million by 1929.

Horse racing The stores made home deliveries, and when the horses grew old, they were retired to his estate in Westchester. In 1914, Butler purchased Laurel Park race track in Maryland and made Winn its general manager.

End Butler died on February 20, 1934, at his home. He was survived by four of his children. His son, James Butler Jr., became the president of the company in 1935.

Philanthropy Butler retired the $2500 outstanding debt of the parish of the Church of the Magdalene in Pocantico Hills. The Butler family also donated a number of the church's stained glass windows in the Magdalene.

In 1907, he donated to the French congregation of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (RSHM) the land, and funded the establishment of Marymount School in Tarrytown, in memory of his wife, Mary A. Rorke Butler, who had died the year before. The superior of the congregation in America was his cousin, Mother Marie Joseph (Johanna) Butler, from County Kilkenny, Ireland.

Before his death in 1934, Butler funded the purchase of the Otto H. Kahn House in Manhattan for the Convent of the Sacred Heart and its school.

He was named a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great.