Butler is a northern Pendleton county town on the Licking River. It was established in the 1830s and named Fourth Lock, for a lock that was then under construction on the Licking. It became known as Clayton (the source of the name is obscure) and then Butler or Butler Station on the Covington and Lexington Railroad in the 1850s. The name Butler is for William O. Butler. The Clayton post office opened in 1857 and was renamed Butler in 1860. The population in 1990 was 663.
