William D. Bethell

Born: 1841

Died: 1906

William D. Bethell was the fourth and final president of the taxing district of Shelby County.  He served from 1891 to 1893.  Born in Louisiana in 1840 Bethell's parents moved here when he was a boy.  At the age of 8 he entered preparatory school at Baltimore College and was studying at the Western Military Institute when the Civil War began.  Bethell immediately joined the army at the rank of Captain.

Bethell later servedn on the staff of General Gideon Pillow and later on the staff of General Biffell which is where he was stationed at war's end.  After the war he moved his family to Louisiana and later to Maury County, Tennessee.  He returned to Memphis in 1883 a year before the death of his father.  Upon the death of his father Bethell became a very wealthy man.  He remained in Memphis and became the president of the State National Bank, director of the Security Bank of Memphis, director of the Memphis Cotton Press & Storage Company, director of the Chickasaw Cooperage Company, director of the City Oil Mills, director of the Bluff City Stove Works, director of the Memphis Water Company, and also of several Memphis insurance companies.

He married Cynthia S. Pillow (niece of General Pillow) in 1864.  The couple had five children.  Bethell was president of the taxing district at the opening of the Frisco Bridge. 

Not long after the turn of the century Bethell's doctor advised him to move west for his health.  He and Cynthia relocated to Denver, Colorado, where William Bethell died in 1906.