In 1922, twenty-one-year-old Henry Theodore Joseph Boddeus, a Dutch assistant steward on the S.S. Pastores, jumped ship in New York City. Possibly as an alternative to deportation, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1923 to at least 1928 and was stationed in Haiti and several U.S. cities, arriving in Detroit in 1928. By 1934, he lived with his Tennessee-born bride in Flint, Mich.
Born in Alabama, Murrie C. Betts was a twenty-two-year-old machinist in Saginaw, Mich., in 1930. He was still working there at Baker Perkins, Inc., in 1941.
After the war, Boddeus, Betts, and H.D. Betts partnered to establish Betts & Boddeus Manufacturing Co., located at 3005 Caniff St., Hamtramck, Mich., in 1946. The company made toys, one of which was a derrick for which Murrie Betts eventually received a design patent in 1950. Boddeus left the firm quickly and moved to Florida, where he died in 1947. The company was renamed Betts Manufacturing Co. and moved to 1601 Howard St., Detroit, by 1948. The spiral-cam level wind reel appeared before Boddeus left, as some reels are marked with the Betts & Boddeus name. After the change, the company refocused on sporting goods, fishing tackle, and display stands. It made both steel and fiberglass rods, and its later reels are marked “Smooth Caster Mfg. Co.” By 1959, the company moved to 20855 Telegraph Rd. in Detroit. Murrie Betts also moved to Florida by 1963, where he patented a chair-attached sunshade. He died in St. Petersburg in 1996.
