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In a list of general grants (Grant #4665), it is recorded that Joel Butler applied and/or received 50 acres in Lincoln County on April 22, 1813. It has been indicated in other family histories that Joel received this land in Tennessee initially for the Revolutionary War service performed by James Savery. We don't know who James was, but he could have been a relative on Joel's mother's side or someone in his wife's family; however, this has not been verified. We do know that Joel owned a slave in 1836 who was valued at $500. In the 1858 Hopkins County, Kentucky, Tax Records (p. 9) we find Stephen Cole Butler owned: "1 mule, value $100; 4 cattle; horse or mare, value $125; 5 hogs, over 6 months old; 5,000 lbs. of tobacco; and 150 bu of corn; and 32 bu of wheat." Later in 1860, he owned "60 acres of land in Hopkins County on Drakes Creek, value of land $600; 1 horse or mare, value $50; 3 cattle; 1000 lbs tobacco; and 150 bu corn."

Stephen Cole Butler was a farmer and a cobbler. Although he did not fight in the Civil War, he made shoes for both the Union and Confederate Armies. There is a family story involving a big walnut canopy bed belonging to Stephen and Elizabeth. Seems as if the Yankees had attacked their farm during the Civil War and were shooting up the house. Luvina was hiding
in the big bed during the shooting when one of the bullets hit the back of the headboard. The bullet lodged in the bed and was still there when the family of Nell McDonald Crider was using it into the 1950's.
According to family lore, the reason the Butler boys (Thomas, James, and Anderson) went to Texas in the late 1800's was that they had gotten into trouble in Tennessee after having a fight with a black man and leaving him without knowing whether he was dead or alive. Stephen and Elizabeth moved to Eastland, Texas, sometime around 1881 for unknown reasons to join their sons, leaving two daughters, Elizabeth Harkey and Luvina McDonald, behind in Tennessee with their husbands and families. Kathleen Powell, a great-granddaughter of Stephen, believes he was in poor health and went to Texas to be cared for by his son, James Enos Butler, who was by then a doctor. Even though we know that Stephen and Elizabeth died in Texas, the place of their burial is not known. The most likely place is Pleasant Grove Cemetery between Morton Valley and Eastland, where some of their children are buried, but no records or memorial stones have been found for them.