Appendix E: Biographies
Buttats
Ivan Frantsevich Buttats (Bouttatz)1 (Moscow 2 June [OS] 1809 – 25 July [OS] 1876)2 was the son of Frants Buttats (c. 1774 – after 1824), a medical doctor. His father was one of the first doctors engaged in large-scale smallpox vaccination in Russia.3 Buttats had a brother, Aleksei Frantsevich Buttats (c. 1810 – 23 March 1846), also working for the railroads.4 They were therefore often referred to in their files as Buttats 1 and Buttats 2. Ivan Frantsevich was a Russian citizen, born in Moscow. He was of the Lutheran faith, gentry class, and a bachelor.
He entered the Institute of the Corps of Transport Engineers on 8 February 1826. On 5 December 1827, he was made sub-ensign (2nd class), and on 19 July 1828 sub-ensign (1st class). On the basis of his performance on examinations, he was promoted to ensign on 2 July 1829. He was made second lieutenant on 19 June 1830 and lieutenant on 14 June 1831. He was made captain on 2 December 1835 and, for excellence, major on 6 December 1841.5
Among the projects he was engaged in were the following: on 5 March 1830, he was appointed a coach (repetitor) in the Institute; on 29 July 1831, he was appointed to help build the highway from Pulkovo to the Krasnoe Selo highway; on 27 March 1833, he was sent to Sestroretsk to engage in work on the munitions factory there; in 1834, he was appointed to work on the reconstruction of the cupola of Trinity Cathedral of the Izmailov Regiment; on 4 January 1841, he helped build the Anichkov Bridge over the Fontanka River; on 22 February 1842, he was temporarily put at the disposal of the Committee for the building of the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway.6
Probably the most desirable and interesting assignment he received was being selected to travel to the United States to help persuade Major Whistler (see Images 7–8, 21) to accept the post of consulting engineer for the building of the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway. He had made known to P.P. Mel’nikov (see Image 247), when the latter was seeking someone to accompany him to the United States in 1838, that he knew English.7 Mel’nikov had said he would choose Buttats if his Institute colleague, N.O. Kraft (see Image 248), declined, but Kraft accepted.8 Buttats’s later appointment9 to the post, in 1842, gave him the opportunity to see London, where he bought geodesic instruments for the Russian government.10 Accompanying Major Whistler back to Russia, he had the further opportunity to see Paris and Brussels.11
On his return to Russia, Buttats was appointed head of the Drafting Department of the railway and taught drafting courses in the Transport Institute.12 He held the rank of lieutenant colonel as of 6 December 1843.13
In his report of 12 December 1844 to the emperor, Count P.A. Kleinmikhel’ (see Image 243) said that Lt. Colonel Buttats had requested permission to retire from the service for personal reasons. As his service record met the requirements for retirement in the rank then held by him, with the right to continue wearing his uniform, Kleinmikhel’ requested this, and Nicholas I (see Images 420–423) approved his request on 28 December 1844 / 7 January 1845.14
In 1845, when the last Whistler child was born and baptized John Bouttatz, Anna Whistler (see Images 1–5) recorded that Major Bouttatz was engaged in some mines on the border of Russia and China. With this announcement, he disappears from her diaries.15
Buttats’s brother, Captain Aleksei Frantsevich, who was in the Construction Division of the Corps of Transport Engineers, held in 1845 the post of head of the Sixth Distance of the IVth Section of the Eleventh District of the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway. He was married and had at least two daughters. One was named Vera, and in 1845 she was four years old. On 23 March 1846, he died, and Ivan Frantsevich took on the support of these daughters, in whole or in part, for the next thirty years.16
On 28 May 1874, the director of the St. Petersburg–Warsaw Railway requested that retired Engineer Lt. Colonel Buttats be confirmed head of the newly re-organized Stores Administration with compensation appropriate to his rank. Buttats was confirmed, receiving a salary of three thousand rubles per year with travel expenses of six hundred rubles.17
Buttats died on 25 July 1876 at 2:45 p.m.,18 and on 26 July 1876 a telegram was sent to the chairman of the Council of the Administration saying that the entire staff of the Stores Administration wished to be present at the carrying out of the body of Buttats on Wednesday, 28 July, and asked that while they were absent the store be closed.19
On 2 August 1876, the director of the St. Petersburg–Warsaw Railway, writing to the Council of the Administration, explained the overwhelming circumstances of Buttats’s professional and family life. The deceased’s grave and prolonged illness was in many respects brought on by the constant and unrelenting labors he bore for the good of the Railway Society. On being confirmed in the position of head of the Stores Administration in May 1874, during the reorganization of the stores he had to assume special duties connected with introducing the new order of clerical work, given the complete lack of preparedness of his staff. These labors, together with his declining years, resulted in destructive consequences for his health. Fires in the workshops in 1876 required further increased efforts on the part of the Stores Administration, and Buttats spent whole days and nights in the store trying to avert further misfortunes. His ceaseless efforts resulted in a physical and emotional breakdown, and soon after the fires he took to his bed permanently. But he had one further moral obligation that he had taken on, when he promised his dying brother that he would assume the support and care of his brother’s daughters. Until his very death, he gave them the larger part of his relatively small salary. With his death, one niece was again reduced to no means of support. The director therefore petitioned the Council for funds to cover the deceased’s burial expenses and to maintain the niece until she could find further means of support. On 4 August 1876, the Council voted to support the director’s two requests by giving Buttats’s niece three months’ financial aid, equal to 750 rubles of his salary.20
This, then, was the man for whom Major and Anna Whistler named their last child, John Bouttatz Whistler.
Notes
1 His name will be spelled as Buttats throughout this biography. It will be spelled Bouttatz when reference is made to Anna Whistler’s diaries and to the child the Whistlers named for him.
2 His birth and death dates are taken from his final service record in RGIA: Fond, 258, op.1, d. 2995. Glavnoe Obshchestvo Rossiiskikh zheleznykh dorog. Lichnyi sostav. Buttats Ivan Nachal’nik magazina. [Main Society of Russian Railways. Staff. Buttats Ivan Head of the Store]. All dates are cited Old Style, unless otherwise indicated.
3 Information about Frants Buttats is taken from RGIA: Fond 207, op. 16, d. 15. Formuliarnyi spisok o sluzhbe Doktora Statskogo Sovetnika Buttatsa [Service Record concerning the service of Doctor and State Councilor (5th grade) Buttats] (In pencil on the cover is written “Frants Buttats”); and from Polovtsov, Russkii biograficheskii slovar’. As his age in this service record was given as fifty, and that of his sons Ivan and Aleksei as fifteen and fourteen respectively, and we know Ivan Frantsevich Buttats was born in 1809, the year of this service record should be 1824.
4 For Aleksei Frantsevich Buttats, see RGIA: Fond 207, op. 16, d. 15. Formuliarnyi spisok o sluzhbe Doktora Statskogo Sovetnika Buttatsa [Service Record concerning the service of Doctor and State Councilor (5th grade) Buttats] and Fond 207, op. 16, d. 15. Formuliarnyi spisok o sluzhbe i dostoinstve Korpusa Inzhenerov putei soobshcheniia Kapitana Buttats 2. 11 Okruga putei soobsheniia Za 1845 god [Service and Merit Record of Captain Buttats 2 of the Corps of Railway Engineers of the 11th District of Transport for 1845]. There is also a service and merit record for this brother for 1841, in which he is erroneously identified as Andrei Frantsov. As the name of his wife in these records is identical, both service records are for Aleksei Frantsevich.
5 RGIA: Fond 200, op. 1, d. 6133. Formuliarnyi spisok o sluzhbe i dostoinstve Korpusa Inzhenerov putei soobshcheniia Maiora Buttatsa 1go 1842 goda [Service and merit record of Major Buttats 1 of the Corps of Transport Engineers. 1842].
6 RGIA: Fond 200, op. 1, d. 6133.
7 As proof, see his translation from English into Russian of an article by Mr. Ariel Norris, civil engineer in New York, entitled “A New Method of Hydraulic and Topographical Surveying”: G. Ariel’ Noris, “Novyi sposob gidravlicheskoi i topograficheskoi s″emki,” Zhurnal Putei Soobshcheniia [Journal of Communication Routes] 3, no. 1 [1842]: pp. 218–230.
8 Mel’nikov, Svedeniia, fols. 193r, 193v. 9 RGIA: Fond 219, op. 1, d. 3347. O posylke v Ameriku Maiora Buttatsa dlia vyzova v Rossiiu Maiora Uistlera [Concerning the sending of Major Buttats to America to invite Major Whistler to come to Russia]. 10 RGIA: Fond 219, op. 1, d. 3347. O posylke v Ameriku Maiora Buttatsa dlia vyzova v Rossiiu Maiora Uistlera. V Stroitel’nuiu Kommissiiu SPb – Moskovskoi/zheleznoi dorogi Korpusa Inzhenerov Maiora Buttatsa Raport. No. 1. 25 Marta/4 Aprelia 1842 [To the Construction Commission of the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway. Report of Major Buttats of the Corps of Engineers. No. 1. 25 March / 4 April 1842]. The Report was written in London. 11 George W Whistler to Major William Gibbs McNeill, Adelphi Terrace, London, August 15, 1842, NYPL: Swift Papers; William H. Swift to Gen. J.G. Swift, Springfield, September 4, 1842. 12 RGIA: Fond 200, op. 1, d. 2884. Ob opredelenii v Institut KPS uchitelem chercheniia planov KI Maiora Buttatsa. Nachalos’ 6 Sent., 1842 g. Resheno 18 Sent. 1842 g. [Concerning the appointment of Transport Engineer Major Buttats to the Institute of the KPS as teacher of drafting. File started on 6 Sept. 1842. File concluded on 18 Sept. 1842]. 13 RGIA: Fond 446, 1844, op. 13, d. 4. Vsepoddanneishie doklady GUPSiPZ 12 Dek. 1844 g. 1229 Buttats [Most Devoted Reports of the Main Administration of Transport and Public Buildings 12 Dec. 1844, 1229 Buttats]. 14 RGIA: Fond 446, 1844, op. 13, d. 4 (see previous Note for document title) and Fond 446, op. 6, d. 1. Vysochaishie prikazy [Imperial Orders], 15 Dek. 1844 g. – 26 Dek. 1844 g., fol. 3v. 15 Entry for October 23rd [1845], NYPL: AWPD, Part II. 16 RGIA: Fond 207, op. 16, d. 15 (see Note 3 above for document title); Fond 446, op. 6, d. 1. Vysochaishie prikazy 15 Dek. 1844 g. – 26 Dek. 1846 g., fol. 62v; Adres-Kalendar’, ili, Obshchii Shtat Rossiiskoi Imperii na 1844g [Address Calendar, or, the General Staff of the Russian Empire for 1844], pt. 1, p. 287. 17 RGIA: Fond 258, op. 1, d. 2995 (see Note 2 in this biography for document title). 18 Institut russkoi literatury Akademii nauk (Pushkinskii dom) (IRLI) [Institute of Russian Literature of the Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House)] Fond 2/Б-93 6696 contains a photograph of Buttats from an old portrait album (indicated on the photo itself) with the time of his death among the brief information written on the back: “Inzhener-Polkovnik Ivan Frantsovich Butats, stroitel’ anichkovskogo mosta, skonchalsia v Peterburge 25 Iiulia 1876 g. v 2 ch. 45 m. po poludni [Engineer Colonel Ivan Frantsovich Butats, builder of the Anichkov Bridge, died in Petersburg on 25 July 1847 at 2:45 in the afternoon].” On the front of the photograph is written: “Stark au coin de Liteine and Panteleimonovskaya No 25/23 [Stark on the corner of Liteinaia and Panteleimonovskaia streets].” A request for permission to publish this photograph has not been answered at the time of publication of this manuscript. 19 RGIA: Fond 258, op. 1, d. 2995. 20 RGIA: Fond 258, op. 1, d. 2995.
