Butler township was created on October 7, 1817 from parts of Wayne and Randolph townships. The early settlers came from North and South Carolina. Some may have settled for a period in Tennessee and Kentucky.

The earliest settlers were probably Martin Davenport and David Hoover, Sr., who came from North Carolina in 1800. Between 1801 and 1805, several other families arrived from North Carolina: David Mast, John Quillian, Thomas Newman, George Sinks, and Henry Yount.

In 1805 Daniel Waymire and Phillip Plummer came from North Carolina with their families. Those two families came to have the largest number of descendants in the township. Other families that arrived in 1805 or after include Abijah Jones, William Compton, and Sylvanus Swallow. Many of those North Carolina settlers were members of the society of Friends.

Early land records for Butler township include the families of:

Joseph Evans (1806)
Samuel Freeman (1805)
John Rittenhouse (1806)
James Reed (1811)
Jesse Johnson (1810)
Samuel Martindale (1817)
T. Skinner and S. Jones (1816)
Edward Gallaher (1811)
John Tenney (1829)
John Haddis (1829)
Joshua Cushman (1817)
Austin Kelley (1831)
Thomas T. Newman (1831)
Keziah Jones (1818)
Elijah Cox (1817)
Charles B. Anderson (1827)