Los Angeles herald., 1905-04-03
ACE NO BAR To
SURGEON'S KNIFE
MAN NlNETY-THREE YEARS
OLD OPERATED UPON
Although Attended With Greatest
Danger, Patriarch undersoes
Ordeal at County Hospital and
VIII Probably Recover

Ninety-three years old, bent and fur
rowed with age. George Butchart has
lately undergone a difficult surgical
operation at the county hospital. The
doctors are hopeful of his ultimate re-
covery.
Butchart, survivor Of six generations,
is the son of Alexander Butchart, the
Scotchman who, seventy-1ve years ago.
led 300 Of his fellow countrymen into
the wilds of Venezula in a British
colonization scheme, and the son be-
leves himself to be the only one now
alive of the little body of colonsts who
left Cromarty, Scotland, for the new
world three-quarters of century ago.
When Butchart, who is resident OF
Los Angeles, appeared at the hospital
two weeks ago and asked that an oper-
alton be performed after an examina-
ton physicians were loath to operate,
believing that there was little hope that
at his age he could survive.
Butchart was urgent, however, for
the use of the knife to relieve his suf-
ferings and, with reluctance, the doc
tors consented to perform the operation.
He refused to take chloroform or ether
and, with an injection of cocaine at the
base of his spine to relieve the pain, in
the full possession of his senses except
that of feeling in the affected parts. he
watched the doctors with great interest
throughout the time he was on the
operating table. Since then his re-
covery has been fairly rapid.
He gives as a reason for his vitality
life of outdoor exercise and we'll regu-
lated habits. His eyes are dimmed, but
otherwise his faculties are practically
intact and his memory runs back with
ease and exactness to the time when
he left Scotland as member of the
Cromarty colonization party.
With his father directing the move
ments of the party and under the pro-
lection of the English government,
which was fostering the attempt to
form of settlement in Venezuela, the
colonists made town on the north
west coast of Venezuela. 1t did not
meet Win success.
The Scots, who had come to South
America with hopeful visions of gold
mines and fertile plantations, failed of
their purpose. In after years gold was
discovered in paying quantities near
the site of the old town of Toperina, for
such they had named it. The soil was
found to be fertile, but the Scots were
unaccustomed to the climate and too
quickly tired of the country
Butchart's father was delegated by
the community to go to Bogota and pc
tition the British consul for his as
sistance in helping them to leave the
country.
The English government wished them
to found new settlement on the
Columbia river, in what is now Wash
ington, in order to hold the territory
from the encroachments Of the .Amerl-
cans. However. they were given their
choice Of settling in Canada or free
passage home to England.
They went to Canada, where the
colony became disrupted, and Alexan-
munity vanished.
The son, George, married and started
to farming on a section Of land given
him by the Canadian government.
In 1878 he came to California and
started a small store at San Marco. in
San Bernardino county. later became
the towns postmaster and prospered In
his business so long as the staging con-
tinued between San Francisco and the
towns farther south in Mexico. When
this was done away with by the COM
ing Of the railroad he removed his
family from San Marco and, until COM
ing to Los Angeles, he has lived in
various parts of the southland.
His wife died five years ago at the
age of S5. He has two sons living in
Los Angeles, one 6s years old and the
other sc.