The Ipswich assessors office gives the date of construction for the house at 48 Summer Street as 1868. It first appears on the 1872 and 1884 Ipswich map with the name “A. Butler.” The Ipswich Agawam Manual and Directory of 1888 shows the name “Alonzo Butler, opposite 45 Summer Street, occupation painter.”
At the Old North Burying Ground in Ipswich is Capt. Asa Butler, 1806-1893 and His wife, Elizabeth Butler, 1813-1875 (burying ground map: E-76). Alonzo Butler, son of Asa and Elisabeth Butler, was born Oct. 14, 1839. During the Civil War, Alonzo Butler was taken prisoner and was exchanged after three months imprisonment at Lynchburg and Richmond, Virginia.
Capt. Cogswell wrote about the engagement:
“We took the Martinsburg pike and without a halt marched to Williamsport at 7 o’clock on Sunday night, a distance of 36 miles or more. The women and citizens of Winchester fired out of the windows upon us, and as we were moving along through, one woman shot a man of mine just before me. Twenty in my company were killed, wounded or missing. My company did nobly fighting for about 13 hours and marching over ploughed fields, and we marched 60 miles, not a wink of sleep or rest from 12 o’clock on Friday night till Sunday night at 8 o’clock and scarcely anything to eat. ” Williamsport, May 27th
It appears that in 1884 Abbie Butler and Alonzo Butler sold to Sarah Burnham the house next door at 46 Summer St. (1126: 233). In the 1910 map the owner of 46 Summer Street is “Butler and Burnham” and this house is owned by Nathaniel Burnham. He released the house to Nathaniel Burnham in 1923 (2557; 558). In 1935, Nathaniel Burnham mortgaged to the Ipswich Savings Bank (3037; 273)
Sources:
Historic Ipswich 