Republican, Free Will Baptist and editor of the Biddeford Union and Journal, John Edward Butler was born in Berwick, Maine in 1836 and apparently attended Bowdoin College without graduating.
Prominent in Republican politics at both the county and State level he served for five years on the Republican State Committee and was a delegate to the National Convention in 1872.
Twice Chairman of the York County Committee he entered the newspaper business in 1863 and was admitted to the bar in 1865.
Butler was elected to the Maine State Senate in 1873 and was reelected in 1874. In that latter year he was also elected President of the Senate.