Tulare County Biographies

WILLIAM BETTERIDGE

Submitted by Sally Kaleta, June, 2007

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

	Among those who have aided materially in the growth of 
Fresno and who are eminently worthy of biographical mention in the history of 
Central California, is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. Mr. 
Betteridge was born in Rochester, New York, in 1850, and was educated at 
Rochester and Buffalo, living at home until 1867. In that year he went to Stark 
County, Ohio, and learned the trade of brick-mason with his uncle, J. C. 
Coleman, a prominent contractor. In 1871 he went to Lawrence, Kansas, where he 
was employed on the State University building, then in process of erection. 
Through the failure of the contractor, under whom he had worked for three years, 
he lost all his wages. In  May, 1874, Mr. Betteridge started for California, 
coming in a second-class car, attached to a freight train, and after eleven days 
arrived in San Francisco. His first employment there  was on the Palace Hotel. 
In the fall of that year he went to Napa, where for thirteen months he worked on 
the Insane Asylum. Returning to San Francisco in 1876, he started a meat market, 
being generously offered assistance by Jeff James, a prominent wholesale butcher 
of that city. Six months later he sold out and again began work at his trade in 
and about San Francisco. In 1878 he spent three months in Fresno. He then went 
back to Oakland, but the following year returned to Fresno and settled in 
business, soon becoming prominent among the contractors and builders of the 
town. The result of his early labors has been destroyed by the sweeping fires 
which have visited Fresno. In 1881 Mr. Betteridge was backed and assisted by Mr. 
Charles De Long, who kindly furnished him with the necessary funds to purchase 
land south of town for the purpose of establishing a brick yard. Of this 
kindness, which was tendered without note or interest, Mr. Betteridge speaks 
with great feeling, and he regards it as a stepping stone toward his subsequent 
success. He at once began the manufacture of brick, which placed him among the 
foremost contractors. Among the prominent buildings of his erection that have 
survived the fires, we mention the Grand Central Hotel, the Winchell and 
Shankling buildings and Warner building. In 1887 he built the Hughes Hotel, 
taking in part payment three blocks of land, from one of which he made the brick 
for the hotel, later selling the block at a largely increased price. He has 
since built the Hughes block, Fresno National Bank Building, Temple Ba. block, 
and many buildings of lesser importance. Prosperity has attended his labors 
here, and he has accumulated valuable property. He owns and resides in a fine 
brick residence, corner of M and Merced streets; also has 120 acres of ranch 
land, partly improved. Although in comfortable circumstances, he is still 
actively engaged in contracting and building. Mr. Betteridge was married in 
Fresno, in 1883, to Miss Margaret Mier, and has one child, Myron, born in 
October, 1884. In September, 1889, after an absence of twenty years, Mr. 
Betteridge returned East to his old home, and came back to California fully 
satisfied with this State and its wonderful resources.
 
Source: "The Memorial and Biographical History of the County of Fresno, Tulare 
and Kern, California," Lewis Publ. Co., 1892, pp. 471-472.