Werter Granville Betty

Werter G. Betty (Oct. 1859-March 1928) was an early resident of East Norwood on Ash Avenue. He promoted his new neighborhood by holding the position of Secretary of the East Norwood Improvement Society, a group that worked to improve the subdivision until the Village of Norwood was incorporated in 1888. He lived in Norwood until his death on March 22, 1928. His home at that time was 2220 Madison Avenue, in South Norwood. He and Ren Mulford, Jr., were the authors of the 1894 book Norwood, Her Homes and Her People, and for that work, both were made Norwood's first official historians by the Norwood Village Council. Even earlier, Betty had written a historical sketch of "The Norwoods," for the first edition of a new suburban newspaper, The Herald, (not to be confused with later newspapers of the same name) in early 1888.

Betty graduated from the Ohio Mechanics Institute in 1878, and then worked as an engineer of road work for the Southern Railway for a year. At that time, he began a long (49 years) career with the telephone company. At his death, he was the editor of The Cincinnati Telephone Bulletin, the official paper of the Cincinnati and Suburban Bell Telephone Company. His writing ability probably came naturally—his father, Edward Betty, was an editor with The Commercial Tribune, a now defunct Cincinnati newspaper.

In the mid-1890's Mr. Betty was the second secretary of the Norwood Platting Commission, having replaced the former secretary, W. E. Wichgar, who had been elected village clerk in 1891. Betty was a trustee of the Presbyterian Church of Norwood, Secretary of the Norwood Volunteer Fire Department and an Executive Board member of the Norwood Tennis Club. From 1902-1904, he was the 4th Ward Councilman in Norwood.

At his death in 1928, Mr. Betty was survived by his widow, Elizabeth "Bessie" Walker Smith, who was his 2nd wife (Elizabeth J. Tidball was his 1st wife), two children, Edward V. and Isabella Katie Betty, and a foster-daughter, Genevieve Smith Betty (probably the daughter of his 2nd wife). He was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery.