James Butler (1855 – February 20, 1934) was an American businessman from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and prominent owner of

racehorses Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...

and

racetracks A race track (racetrack, racing track or racing circuit) is a facility built for racing of vehicles, athletes, or animals (e.g. horse racing or greyhound racing). A race track also may feature grandstands or concourses. Race tracks are also ...

. With his cousin, Mother

Marie Joseph Butler Mother Marie Joseph "Johanna" Butler (22 July 1860 – 23 April 1940) was an Irish nun, mother general of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, and founder of Marymount colleges and schools. Biography Johanna Butler was born in Ballynunry ...

, he founded Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York in memory of his late wife.

Life

Early years

Butler was born in 1855 in

County Kilkenny County Kilkenny ( gle, Contae Chill Chainnigh) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the South-East Region. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. Kilkenny County Council is the local authority for the cou ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, on farming property held by his family for hundreds of years. After education in a Russellam village parish school, he emigrated to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, with his parents, when he was 20 years old, and began farming, in Goshen Mountain, Massachusetts. He returned to New York in under two years, joining a brother who had emigrated before him, Butler then started working for hotels in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, at which he learned food service operations.

Grocery business

As a hotel steward in the early 1880s, Butler invested his $2,000 life savings with Patrick J. O'Connor (the son of his landlady) to open a grocery store on Second Avenue in New York. The business grew to a chain of stores so successful that Butler quit the hotel business and bought out O'Connor. By 1914, Butler owned 43 stores (all featuring green and gold exteriors). His locations on Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues were meant to serve the "carriage trade" on Central Park West and west of Broadway. 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. By 1890, Butler had bought his first horses, and in 1893 acquired the EastView Stock Farm near

Greenburgh Greenburgh is a town in western Westchester County, New York. The population was 95,397 at the time of the 2020 census. History Greenburgh developed along the Hudson River, long the main transportation route. It was settled by northern Europeans ...

and

Mount Pleasant, New York Mount Pleasant is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town population was 44,436. The hamlet (N ...

. In early 1907, he purchased the closed Empire City Race Track, a "trotting" track, and reopened it for thoroughbred racing. In 1912, after a wave of concern over gambling went through the eastern U.S., Butler financed a horse racing track in Juarez, Mexico, for which prominent horse racing personality

Matt Winn Martin J. "Matt" Winn (June 30, 1861 – October 6, 1949) was a prominent personality in American thoroughbred horse racing history and president of Churchill Downs racetrack, home to the Kentucky Derby race that he made famous. In 2017, he was ...

headed operations. 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. At the time of his death, Butler's grocery store chain was the sixth largest in the U.S. by total sales, and his more than 1,100 stores were second in number only to

A & P The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, was an American chain of grocery stores that operated from 1859 to 2015. From 1915 through 1975, A&P was the largest grocery retailer in the United States (and, until 1965, the la ...

in the New York area. Three thousand mourners attended his funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral. 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 Pocantico Hills is a hamlet in the Westchester County town of Mount Pleasant, New York, United States. The Rockefeller family estate, anchored by Kykuit, the family seat built by John D. Rockefeller Sr., is located in Pocantico Hills, as is the a ...

. 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 The Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (known in the United States as the RSHM and in other parts of the world as RSCM) are a global Roman Catholic community of about 900 apostolic religious women. Today the diversity of ministries include educ ...

(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 The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great ( la, Ordo Sancti Gregorii Magni; it, Ordine di San Gregorio Magno) was established on 1 September 1831, by Pope Gregory XVI, seven months after his election as Pope. The order is one of ...

. The J. Butler Saloon that opened on the first floor of the

Yonkers Raceway Yonkers Raceway & Empire City Casino, founded in 1899 as the Empire City Race Track, is a one-half-mile standardbred harness racing dirt track and slots racino located at the intersection of Central Park Avenue and Yonkers Avenue in Yonkers, New Y ...

grandstand in the early 1980s is named after him.

References

External links

James Butler, U.S. Grocery Store/Racetrack Owner
Great Irish People, includes portrait print sample.
Photo of a Butler grocery in New York City in 1939
by Howard Gibson {{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, James 1934 deaths 1855 births American grocers American racehorse owners and breeders People from County Kilkenny Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923)