Charles Butcher

* Hajdúdorog, July 20, 1821 – † Görögfalu, February 2, 1890 / lawyer, journalist, local historian ; ; He was an interesting figure in 19th-century Hungarian journalism and public life, who was the first to write a book in Hungarian about the Ruthenians in Hungary. His father died during the cholera epidemic of 1831, so the boy could only study with the help of well-wishers and patrons. He began his secondary school studies in Debrecen, while trying to raise the necessary funds as a home tutor. His life was also embittered by serious illnesses. ; He finished high school in Nagyvárad. By then, some of his writings had already been published in various newspapers. From 1839, he studied philosophy, linguistics, Hungarian literature, history, mathematics and theology at the University of Pest. During his university years, he also organized a literary circle, through which he came into contact with Imre Madách. He took his poems to Vörösmarty, who praised them but advised him to find a job that would earn him money, as he would hardly be able to make a living from literature. As a result, he decided to pursue a career in law and began his legal studies in Pécs and then completed them in Pest. During his two-year unpaid internship, he worked as a journalist and became the editor of the economic newspaper Merkúr. In 1846, he took the bar exam, during which he also met the young people who would start the revolution in Pest on March 15, 1848. In 1848/49, he worked primarily as a journalist and as the official historical notary of the government. ; After the suppression of the War of Independence, in order to avoid unnecessary harassment, he lived in Ung County from 1850, then married in 1851, married a girl from Grögfalu and lived in Grögfalu with longer and shorter interruptions until his death. He also took on a public role, but was primarily engaged in journalism, published in several contemporary newspapers, and later founded several newspapers himself (Kárpáti Hírnök, Ungvári Hírlap, Kárpáti Néplap). He wrote 26 books, and more than 800 of his studies and articles were published. His choice of topics encompassed many areas of intellectual life, from psychology to sociology, agriculture and cultural history, to legal history and local history. His work, The Peoples of Hungary Historically and Politically, published in 1852, was banned and for this reason he was unable to hold public office for a long time. His work entitled The Latest Russian Movements in Our Country from 1850 to the Latest Days remained in manuscript, in which he was the first to deal with the aspirations of the Ruthenian minority in Hungary. ; ; His main works: ; The Latest Constitutions of Europe. With Special Reference to the Social Status of Europe, 1848, ; The History of the Russians in Hungary, 1850, ; The Legal History of Hungarian Landlord Relations, 1857, ; The History of Ungvár from the Earliest Times to the Present, 1862, ; The Correspondence of Lajos Kossuth with the Leaders of the Hungarian War of Independence, 1862, ; The Prelude to the Hungarian War of Independence in 1848, 1862, ; The Organization and Statutes of the Ung County Savings Bank, 1865. ; In addition, several of his manuscripts have survived, four of which are particularly interesting and valuable as a source: The Hungarian Revolution of 1848–49 – he compiled this as the official historian of the government, The History of the Greek Catholic Church in Hungary – he worked on this extensive work for 30 years and completed it in 1882, but he was unable to raise money to print it, The History of the Free Hajdúks; (around 1886), The History of the Hungarian Counties – the most extensive manuscript of the legacy.