Solomon Devoe Butcher, well-known Nebraska sod house photographer, was born in Virginia on January 24, l856. He received his early education in Illinois, became an apprentice to a tintypist, and learned photography. After working as a salesman in Ohio, he came to Custer County in l880 with his father and brother to take a homestead.
However, he soon left Custer County and attended college in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Here he was married to Lillie Barber Hamilton, and in l882 they moved to Custer County, Nebraska, where Butcher taught school. This enabled him to purchase land on which to build a small structure and to purchase photographic equipment.
In December l884 he and his family moved into the newly founded town of Walworth, and with a partner built a photo gallery.
The town's economic failure forced them to sell the gallery, and Butcher also lost his family's new sod home.
Soon afterwards he conceived a plan to produce a photographic history of Custer County. Traveling by team and a specially outfitted wagon over nearly non-existent roads, he took photographs and collected biographies from Custer County residents. Delays in the project were caused by financial setbacks, loss of his farm, and a fire which destroyed his manuscripts.
By l90l he had completed the text for the book and had ordered the engravings to illustrate it. Pioneer History of Custer County and Short Sketches of Early Days in Nebraska was published with the financial backing of E.S. Finch of Custer County. In l902 Butcher opened a photographic studio in Kearney and also started a postcard industry. When Butcher went into other business ventures, the studio was operated by his son; later the son chose a military career and the studio was sold. After unsuccessful ventures in real estate, manufacturing, and the production of a patent medicine, Butcher moved to Greeley, Colorado, where he died on March l8, l927. Butcher's extensive collection of some 3,500 photographs of sod houses and other Nebraska scenes was acquired and preserved by the Nebraska State Historical Society.