BIO: George C. BUTZ, Centre County, PA

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Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including 
the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing 
Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. 
Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898.
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  PROF. GEORGE C. BUTZ, M.S., assistant professor of Horticulture at 
Pennsylvania State College, and horticulturist at the Experiment 
Station, is a young man of marked ability, already known as an expert 
in his branch of science. The trend of his genius may be attributed to 
hereditary influences, as his father, the late Paul Butz, a native of 
Basel, Switzerland, was distinguished for his skill as a florist and 
horticulturist as well as for fine artistic taste in landscape 
gardening.
  Paul Butz was born April 25, 1821, and came to America at the age of 
thirty, locating at New Castle, Penn., where his death occurred April 
5, 1894. The extensive nurseries which he established there are still 
conducted by his sons. His trade in trees of all kinds, and in other 
departments of the nursery business, was very large, bulbs and plants 
from the garden being sent to all of the United States and Canada. Many 
wealthy men of refined taste availed themselves of his practical advice 
in the arrangement of their grounds, the estate of Gov. Tod, at 
Youngstown, Ohio, being one among those which were beautified according 
to his designs. The Professor's mother, whose maiden name was 

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.  465

Margaret Wiegand, was born in Wurtemburg, Germany, November 11, 1831, 
and at the age of ten crossed the Atlantic with her parents, who 
settled at Allegheny, Penn. Her father, a cabinet maker by trade, was 
killed by accident soon after his arrival; her mother died in 1883 at 
the advanced age of eighty-three. Mrs. Butz is still living at the old 
home in New Castle. Of fourteen children, two died in infancy; the 
others are: William Tell, who succeeded his father in business, and 
with another brother now conducts the Croton Gardens at New Castle; 
John M., a trusted employee of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co., stationed 
at Lawrence Junction, Ashtabula division; Caroline, who is at home; 
Emma and Mary A. (twins), both at home, the former being a successful 
teacher in the schools there; Frank P., now associated with his brother 
William in the nursery business; George C., the subject of this sketch; 
Maggie E., a graduate of New Castle High School, at present teaching in 
the primary department of the public schools of that town; Effie, a 
graduate of Edinburg Normal School, and a teacher in the New Castle 
schools; Albert E., who was graduated from Curry University at 
Pittsburg, and is now employed in that city as a mechanical 
draughtsman; Rosa S., a high school graduate, now stenographer for the 
Mercantile Bank at Pittsburg; and Harry E., a student at Western 
University, Allegheny.
  Prof. George C. Butz was born February 1, 1863, and was reared at the 
old home in New Castle, preparing for college, in the high school 
there. In 1880 he entered the sophomore class at State College, taking 
the general scientific course, and graduating in 1883. In 1884-85 he 
taught in the Preparatory Department, pursuing at the same time a post-
graduate course in botany and zoology, and he then started upon an 
extensive tour for the purpose of studying the flora of the United 
States. A year was spent in Southern California, and during this time 
he did some excellent work in landscape gardening, with which he had 
been familiar from boyhood, laying out one estate of 1600 acres, and 
making artistic use of flowers, ornamental trees and shrubs, fruit 
trees, olives and other means of adornment, natural and artificial. On 
his return to Pennsylvania, in July, 1887, he accepted the position of 
horticulturist at the Experiment Station. In 1894 he was appointed 
assistant professor of horticulture in the Pennsylvania State College. 
In 1888 his Alma Mater conferred upon him the well-merited degree of 
Master of Science.
  In 1892 Prof. Butz was married to Miss Emma Robinson, a native of 
Centre county - born at Hecla Furnace, February 18, 1866. They have two 
children, Gerald R. and Charles A. The Professor and his wife are 
members of the Presbyterian Church, in which he is an elder. As a 
citizen he takes generous interest in all the movements of the time, 
and in political faith is a Democrat. The town of State College was 
organized into a borough August 29, 1896, at which time our subject was 
elected a member of the council and president of the same. In the 
spring of 1897 he was re-elected to that position, although the town is 
strongly Republican.