Although they lived in the town of Smyrna, the Butcher family was self-sufficient much like people on farms. William, the patriarch of the family was a cook at the Wayside Inn, and he and his wife raised a houseful of children, all of whom were expected to do their part to help out. The family lived next to Mt. Olive Pentecostal Church, where William was a deacon and later preacher, a leader in the local African American community.

Clarence Butcher recalls the "family factory" that his father operated to keep the family fed. They even raised their own chickens, ducks, geese and turkey from the eggs which they kept warm behind the woodstove until they hatched, to the full-grown birds which they would sell to their neighbors for a small profit.

Clarence characterized the process of preserving the food from their garden as an assembly line, with his father as the inspector. "We canned everything. The only thing we purchased from the store was milk, sugar, salt, we made our own butter." The children would shake the cream in jars until it formed clumps of butter.

Although the Butcher family could not afford to buy much, they never went hungry because "there was always plenty of food." Family and neighbors were always welcome to share, especially during the holidays. The community worked together in many different ways. The men hunted together and all of the neighbors would help in the processing at hog killing time, sharing the scrapple, sausage and meat that they made. Even the children were under the watchful eye of every adult, as Clarence noted, "It was a village raising the children."