author
Consul Willshire Butterfield
1824–1899
A 19th-century American historian with a gift for turning frontier and Revolutionary-era research into vivid local history. His books helped preserve stories from Ohio, Wisconsin, and the wider Old Northwest for later generations.
1 Audiobook
History of the Discovery of the Northwest by John Nicolet in 1634 With a Sketch of his Life
by Consul Willshire Butterfield
About the author
Born in Mexico, New York, in 1824, Butterfield became an American author, educator, and historian whose work focused on early western and Revolutionary history. Library and catalog records consistently identify him as an author and educator, and surviving bibliographies show a long list of history titles under the name C. W. Butterfield.
He is especially associated with detailed works on places and people in Ohio and Wisconsin, along with studies of figures and events from the colonial and Revolutionary periods. Titles linked to him include county histories, documentary collections, and books on subjects such as George Rogers Clark, the Crawford expedition, and exploration in the upper Midwest.
Although he is not a widely known name today, his writing was part of the big 19th-century effort to gather records, local memories, and regional stories before they disappeared. For listeners interested in early American history, his work offers a window into how that past was researched and retold in his own time.