Sacramento County
Biographies
WILLIAM AUGUST MEYER
The fact that Mr. Meyer scarcely yet has
reached the prime of life is not inconsistent with the statement that he has
devoted twenty years of painstaking study to the profession of an
optician. When only fourteen, in the year 1892, he was apprenticed
to a prominent member of the craft in San Francisco, and under that skilled
optician, L. A. Berteling, he studied with a
persistence and intelligence that inevitably brought satisfactory
results. Every detail of the business was learned with a sincerity and
earnestness indicative of high aspirations. As is the
case in every trade or profession where attention to details is made the creed,
so with him in his intelligent and purposeful studies of the science of optics.
While it is a very difficult task to acquire a thorough knowledge of the
business (for no work entails greater responsibilities than that of examining
the eyes and fitting glasses), many competent judges have asserted that he is
unsurpassed in his specialty and all agree that his judgment is authoritative
in questions relating to his chosen calling.
The distinction of being a native-born
Californian belongs to Mr. Meyer, whose birth occurred in the city of San
Francisco March 18, 1878, and who is a son of John N. and Sophie M.
Meyer. When he had completed the studies of the grammar school he began
to study under Mr. Berteling in the vacation seasons,
but in addition he took up high school studies and at the age of eighteen was
graduated with a high standing from the San Francisco schools. After he
had acquired a thorough knowledge of optics he began to earn his livelihood
through the pursuance of the specialty, and in 1899 he came to Sacramento to
act as manager for the Chinn-Berretta Optical Company, in whose employ he
remained for five years. A desire to embark in business for himself led
him to relinquish a position both congenial and profitable. Since then he
has carried on a store at No. 903 K street, Sacramento, besides which, May 18, 1911,
he opened an establishment in Stockton, both of these being popular and well
patronized by people of the two communities.
The marriage of Mr. Meyer and Miss Ruby H.
Brown was solemnized in Sacramento December 3, 1901, and has been blessed with
two children, a daughter, Margaret, and a son, William August, Jr. The family hold membership with the Episcopal church and
maintain a deep interest in religious movements, as well as in all enterprises
for the upbuilding of the city and the welfare of its
people. The Republican party has received the
allegiance of Mr. Meyer in national and local elections. The Native Sons
of the Golden West have numbered him among their members in their Sacramento
parlor, and in addition he has enjoyed fraternal relations with the Elks, in
which he officiates as past exalted ruler of the Sacramento Lodge No. 6.
He is a member of the Sutter Club and is past president of the California State
Association of Opticians.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Willis,
William L., History of Sacramento County,
California, Pages 777-778. Historic
Record Company,
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.