Butler City Hall is located at 22 West Ohio Street, Butler, MO 64730.
Phone: 660‑679‑4013.
Butler as Described in 1941 [1]
The town was platted in 1854 and named for William O. Butler, officer in the Mexican War. It became the seat of Bates County in 1856. The quiet streets hardly recall the holocaust of 1861, when the courthouse and many other buildings were burned by a squad of cavalry sent from Kansas under orders of Colonel James Montgomery. During the succeeding years of the war, it is said, most of the remaining buildings in town were burned to prevent Southern sympathizers from harboring rebels. After the war, Butler was gradually rebuilt. Each August the town attracts as many as 20,000 visitors for the Little Bit and Bridle Show, a horse show often referred to as the "Little American Royal." At the Butler Community Sales Pavilion (open weekdays), a low, white frame, barn-like structure with a bright tin roof, and the Bates County Sales Pavilion, a similar building, livestock auctions are held each Tuesday and Thursday respectively.