[1] His father was born Michael Betteldorf in Nohn in the German Eifel region and changed his surname upon arrival in the United States.

He returned to Davenport three years later where the brothers began manufacturing steel gear wagons.

In January 1895 the brothers incorporated their new venture under the name of the Bettendorf Axel Company.

The residents of the town of Gilbert, which was about three miles east of Davenport at the time, raised $15,000 to buy the old Gilbert farm between the Mississippi River and the Davenport, Rock Island and North Western Railway tracks.

Its rapid growth was spurred by William Bettendorf's design of a one-piece railroad truck frame that eliminated bolts, which would work loose as the train was moving and cause delays or derailments.

[5] The new frame was cast from a single piece of steel and revolutionized the railroad industry.

It contained two regenerative open-hearth basic steel furnaces, with a capacity of 25 tons per heat.

They were able to output about one hundred tons of finished steel castings daily that were used in the construction of the railroad boxcars.

They also had divisions that produced hand dollys to move rail cars, ice crushers, table-top cigar lighters, and a machine to compress and bundle wastepaper.

A village was constructed to house the 150 Mexican workers that came to Bettendorf and was called "Holy City."

There were also two-story frame apartment buildings for the unmarried workers and some of the larger box cars were also used for housing.

Holy City was demolished in the 1940s and is now the sight of storage tanks owned by oil companies.

At the start of World War II the plant was used by the United States Navy to produce protective devices for ships.

They raised two sons, Edwin J. and William E. He built an estate on 17 acres (69,000 m2) situated on a bluff overlooking the city of Bettendorf and the river valley below.