William Monroe Tisdale was born May 17, 1860, at Adams, Jefferson Co., N. Y. His father being a Methodist clergyman, his place of residence while a boy was subject to frequent changes. He was educated in the public schools, in various academies, at Wesleyan University and at Harvard College. He taught school for two years, one year at Lowville Academy and one year as principal of a graded school at Camden, N. Y., and then entered the office of Messrs. Cookinham and Sherman, attorneys, at Utica, N. Y. but was compelled by ill health to give up the study of the law. Afterwards Mr. Tisdale spent a year and a half as a writer for the Utica Morning Herald. He came to California in December 1887, and went to Arrowhead Springs for the benefit of the mineral waters. There he soon became an employee of the Arrowhead Hotel Company, at first as their bookkeeper and afterwards as manager of their hotel and other interests.
November 1, 1890, Mr. Tisdale came to Redlands as proprietor of the Terrace Villa Hotel, which he kept for nearly two years. After a trip east and a year at Oakland, he returned to Redlands as manager of the Terracina Hotel, and was also, for a short time, manager of the Windsor. January 1895 Mr. Tisdale retired from the hotel business and returned to the more congenial occupation of writing for the press, as a contributor to various publications east and west. He has written two pamphlets and many articles descriptive of Redlands and vicinity, which have been considered effective advertising. He also served time for something over a year as secretary of the Redlands Chamber of Commerce. His stories of California life published in the Argonaut have been widely copied. Mr. Tisdale was married, July 10, 1884, to Minnie D. Cooper (1860-1946), like himself a native of Jefferson County, N. Y. The children of this marriage are two daughters, Kate and Marjorie, the former born in New York, the latter a native daughter of the Golden West.
(Source: Illustrated Redlands, 1897, p. 17.)
William Tisdale died in Redlands on February 21, 1919 at the age of 58 years.
