William P. Bettendorf
| William P. Bettendorf | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
July 1, 1857 Mendota, Illinois, USA |
| Died | June 3, 1910 (aged 52) Bettendorf, Iowa, USA |
| Resting place |
Oakdale Memorial Gardens Davenport, Iowa 41°32′46″N 90°33′00″W / 41.546°N 90.55°WCoordinates: 41°32′46″N 90°33′00″W / 41.546°N 90.55°W |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Inventor, Industrialist |
| Known for | Invented power lift sulky plow, the Bettendorf metal wheel and the one-piece railroad truck frame |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Wortman (1879–1901) Elizabeth Staby (1908–1910) |
| Children | Etta, Henry |
| Parent(s) | M. Bettendorf Catherine Reck |
William P. Bettendorf (July 1, 1857 – June 3, 1910) was a German-American inventor. He is credited with the invention of the power lift sulky plow, the Bettendorf metal wheel and the one-piece railroad truck frame. By the age of 53 he held 94 patents. With his younger brother, Joseph W. Bettendorf, he founded the Bettendorf Axle Company. His first wife and children preceded him in death. He died as the company was rapidly expanding and before he moved into a palatial home he was building. The city of Bettendorf, Iowa is named after the two brothers.
Born in Mendota, Illinois, William Bettendorf was the oldest of four children born to Michael and Catherine (Reck) Bettendorf. His father was born Michael Betteldorf in Nohn in the German Eifel region. He changed his surname to Bettendorf when he immigrated to the United States at age eighteen and became a school teacher. The family moved to Sedalia, Missouri where the elder Bettendorf opened a grocery store, and then to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas where he became a government clerk. William Bettendorf was educated in the public schools and St. Mary’s Mission School in Kansas, which primarily educated Native American children.
He started working as a messenger boy in Humboldt, Kansas in 1870. Two years later he moved to Peru, Illinois where he became a clerk in the hardware store owned by A. L. Shepard. In 1874 he started work as a machinist’s apprentice at the Peru Plow Company. It was during this time that he invented the first power lift sulky plow in 1878. The device allowed the farmer to remain seated on his horse-drawn plow and press a lever to raise the plow from the earth. Prior to his invention the farmer had to manually lift the plow blade at the end of each furrow. Most farm implement manufacturers adopted the plow. Bettendorf went on to work at the Moline Plow Company in Moline, Illinois for ten months before becoming the foreman in the fitting department of the Parlin & Orendorff Company in Canton, Illinois, which manufactured plows and other agricultural implements. In 1882 he left Canton and returned to Peru as a supervisor at the Peru Plow Company, where he had been an apprentice. It was here that he invented the Bettendorf metal wheel.
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