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Daniel Butler (1874-1942) was a "scholar, orator, poet, politician, and leader of his people." He was valedictorian of his high school class and went on to become Lynchburg's first African-American Postal Clerk in 1900. In 1898 Butler staged a very colorful campaign on the Republican ticket for the Sixth District Congressional seat, but lost to Major Peter J. Otey. His lonely death occurred in Chester, Pa., through which he had been traveling by train. He became ill, but was mistakenly accused of drunkenness, removed from the train, thrown in jail, and finally moved to a hospital where he died shortly thereafter. The only remnant of the Butler-Willis family plot is a single worn concrete marker.