Mary Ann Butler, nee Gaffney, was born in Dublin, Ireland on June 24, 1830. She immigrated to the US with her parents in 1848, settling in Galena, Illinois, where she met Patrick Butler. She married in February 1855 and was the mother of nine children. She moved with her husband and infant daughter to Minnesota in 1856 and the next year to Lakeville, Minnesota. She died in 1915.