"Early History of Thurston County, Washington; Together with Biographies and
Reminiscences of those Identified with Pioneer Days." Compiled and Edited by
Mrs. George E. (Georgiana) Blankenship.  Published in Olympia, Washington, 1914.
p. 132.
 
LOUIS BETTMAN

     Louis Bettman came to Olympia in 1853 from the land of his nativity, the
province of Bavaria, Germany, while a mere lad of 20 years of age. In company
with his brothers, Mose and Sig Bettman, he opened a general merchandise store
in the newly settled hamlet of Olympia. The location of this pioneer store was
on the corner of Main and Second Streets. Indeed, all the business conducted in
the hamlet was centered within a radius of a very few blocks in that
neighborhood. Contemporaneous merchants were George Barnes, Gus. Rosenthal and
Thomas Macleay and Samuel Percival.
     There was very little money in circulation among the pioneer settlers,
consequently much of the trade consisted in bartering groceries, shoes and dry
goods for butter, wool, hides and some grain. As the price allowed for these
commodities was very low and the demand from San Francisco brisk for every kind
of produce, the profits accruing to the merchants by the exchange was
considerable.
     In 1860 Mr. Bettman took a pleasure trip to San Francisco and while there
met and tell in love with Miss Amelia Coblentz, who was visiting in that city
from her home in Los Angeles.  After a very few weeks' courtship Mr. Bettman
persuaded Miss Coblentz to accompany him on his return to Olympia. The young
couple started for Puget Sound immediately after their wedding. A journey of
four days on a sailing vessel before Olympia was reached.
     In Mrs. Bettman's own words: "We landed at Brown's wharf, down on the west
side, which was the only landing place for large vessels then. My first
breakfast in the town was taken at the Pacific House, on the corner of Fourth
and Main Streets, with 'Aunt Becky' Howard as landlady.
     "We soon went to housekeeping in a tiny house owned by Judge Landers, which
stood for many years on the site now occupied by the Mitchell Hotel. The place
was then well back in the woods and surrounded by tall, ugly stumps. I sometimes
thought I'd just die of homesickness when I first came here, everything was so
new and strange and rough. I thought I never could endure to spend my young life
amid such scenes. But when the children began coming and my household cares kept
increasing this feeling gradually wore away and before I realized it I had
gained quite a circle of pleasant acquaintances and began to feel at home and
satisfied.
    "The people in the town then were like one big family.  Every once in a
while we would get together for an all-night dance. Everybody danced with
everybody else. There were no cliques nobody put on style, and everything was
free and easy. My intimate friends among the pioneer women were Mrs. George
Blankenship, Mrs. Rosenthal, Mrs. Chas. Burmister, Mrs. George Barnes and Mrs.
Captain Doane."
    Mrs. Bettman was reticent in talking about herself and husband, but it needs
no historian to recall to the memory of the old timers that Mr. Bettman was
always prominently identified with the prosperity of the growing city and at the
time of his death in 1904 had accumulated a considerable property and left a
reputation for business integrity and personal honor which entitles his memory
to a niche in the hall of fame of Olympia pioneers.
    Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bettman: Belle, Mrs. Oppenheimer;
Josephine, who died several years before her father, and W. W. Bettman, the
latter still conducting the store founded by his father over 60 years ago. Mrs.
Bettman  is best known locally through her untiring labors in the Ladies' Relief
Society. For many years she has been chairman of the relief committee of this
society and wherever and whenever she hears the call of want or distress Mrs.
Bettman responds with ready sympathy, judicious expenditure of the
society's funds and unfailing judgment.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios. Project in May 2007 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.