Harry Bettinger left his hometown of Chittenango, Madison, New York in about 1881. He shows up in the directories for Clinton, Iowa, working as a fireman on the C & NW Railroad shortly thereafter. So he left home at 18, and never went back (according to his mother's will). He may or may not have married his brother Edwin's wife (or ex-wife at the time, unsure), Florence Phillips Bettinger, in Sacramento, prior to her death in 1896. Edwin and Florence met while Edwin and Harry were working for the railroads in Clinton, IA (Clinton is where their uncle Leonard Bettinger Jr had settled prior to 1880, so it is believed that's why the boys relocated to that area from Syracuse. NY area).

Florence went to Sacramento with her son (not Edwin's biological child but raised as such) around 1890 and Harry apparently moved north from Bakersfield to Sacramento in the early 1890s to help Florence with her son, or to live with or marry her. No record of a marriage between Harry and Florence has been located yet. However, he was listed as the surviving spouse in her obituary. She died from peritonitis, likely from overdrinking. Harry owned a saloon and was likely an alcoholic, and his brother Edwin was an alcoholic from day one - dying in a jail cell from alcoholic poisoning in 1906 at age 48. Harry sent Florence's son, Harold E. Bettinger, to live with Harry and Edwin's brother, Marcus Bettinger, in Los Angeles, after Florence died. Marcus was a Superintendant of Los Angeles schools, and Harry knew that Harold would get a good, sober, upbringing.

In the 1910 Census, Harry was listed as a saloon keeper, hence the saloon tokens found and posted here.

In 1914, Harry married Louise (Famchau) De Yongh, and they remained married until her death in 1921. She was buried in San Francisco, CA. He died a year later. Harry was 59 when he died.
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Bakersfield Californian, Monday March 20, 1922; Seen at the CA ST LIB 6/1995
"DIED: BETTINGER, Horatio S. Bettinger, who died March 16 {1922} at a local hospital, was buried March 20 at 1 o'clock from the Doughty-Morton funeral home."