OUTLAW BEGINNINGS:

: Butch Cassidy in the 1870 Census
The 1870 U. S. Census for Beaver, Utah, the first recorded evidence of Birth Cassidy’s existence.

Robert Leroy Parker, better known as “Butch” Cassidy was born 13 April 1866. This date comes from family records kept by the Parker family. No official record of Parker’s birth exists. Utah did not start keeping birth records until 1898. Similarly L.D.S. Church records for Beaver, Utah, which served as a semi-official record for Utah, did not record his birth either. Lulu Betensen. Butch’s sister, claimed that Beaver’s early LDS church membership records were not preserved thus not recording Parker’s birth. This is curious because the Beaver LDS Church records are full of recorded births, baptisms and deaths for the church members in Beaver, some born as early as the late 1700s. Every faithful member of the Church in Beaver In 1877 seems to have had their information recorded. So, why not Robert Leroy Parker? Why not his parents, Max and Annie Parker? The Gillies family, Annie Parker’s family are all there, including Uncle Dan Gillies, Ann’s brother, who moved to Circleville with the Parkers. Some of the younger Parker children are recorded, even after the family moved to Circleville in 1879.
The answer comes from Lulu Betenson, Butch’s sister who claimed that Max Parker, Butch’s father was disaffected from the Church. Her version is that he became angry at the Church over a land dispute while in Circleville. (The subject of a future post). This is only partly true. Max Parker probably did become dissatisfied, if not antagonistic with the Church, but not over a land dispute. Max’s disaffection probably came much earlier than that, and is the reason that his family was not recorded in the early LDS Church records of Beaver.