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WHO WAS WHO in PLUM TOWNSHIP
~ Titusville Herald ~
By H. W. Strawbridge

R. D. Guild

A family name that was once very familiar and well known not only in Plum Township, but in Cherrytree Township as well, was the Guild name. The death of Mrs. Hattie Guild in January, 1954, brought to a termination the long ownership of the property in that name east of Diamond.
The Guild family is an old New England family, the first one, John Guild, having come from England to Dedham, Mass. In 1636. It is claimed that a guild kinsman was one of the early governors of Massachusetts.
Around 1811, a descendent, Dorastus Guild (five generations after the original John), left New Hampshire for New York state, living there several years before finally settling in northern Cherrytree Township, Venango County, Pa., in 1838. He built the famous stone springhouse from which Stone Springhouse Corners takes its name. He had a choice between land here or within the present limits of Chicago. He chose here.
Dorastus Guild and his wife, Ann Jane Haskins Guild, the latter having been a native of Massachusetts, had nine children, one of whom was Romanzo Dorastus Guild, the subject of our sketch.
Romanzo was born March 23, 1824, at Cold Creek, Allegany County, N.Y. Therefore he was fourteen years old when the family settled in Cherrytree Township.
He completed his common school education, then was a student for a while in the Allegheny College at Meadville. He taught a number of terms in the schools of Cherrytree and Plum Townships. One of the schools was the Diamond school. The others cannot now be named due to the passing of time.
Also in his earlier life he was engaged for a few years in the lumber business in the vicinity of Mystic Park. He hewed and ran the timber down Oil Creek to Titusville where it was used in erecting the city mills.
Romanzo once had a case of smallpox in his younger years and recovered from it in good shape. There used to be an old saying that anyone who had smallpox and survived it would reach a ripe age. It certainly held true in Romanzo’s case, as he lived to be very old.
On July 12, 1849, Romanzo was married to Miss Margaret Grove at Sunville with W.W. Davison, Esq., officiating. She was born on Sept. 1, 1827 just southeast of Chapmanville, the youngest child of John and Mary Welsh Grove. They began housekeeping near Schreiners Corners, Troy Township, where their first child was born in March, 1850.
Then during that spring or summer they moved to Plum township, settling on 125 acres less than a mile east of Diamond. This was part of the huge Huidekoper Tract. These same 125 acres had been previously contracted by Abram VanDresser in October, 1838, but he eventually moved off. Romanzo cleared and worked the farm into cultivation and eleven years later received his deed, dated Aug. 13, 1861. He paid $312.50 for the 125 acres, or $2.50 per acre. The main portion of this farm is the farm now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Harold Strawbridge.
Romanzo and Margaret had seven children who were: Miss Angeline Amelia Guild, Mrs. Lusetta Mary Guild Cowan, Grove Guild, Albert and Alice Guild (twins), Preston Guild, and Victor E. Guild. Three of these died quite young. One twin, Albert, died June 21, 1860, aged five weeks and three days. The other twin, Alice, and Preston both died of diphtheria only six days apart. Preston died Oct. 31, 1864, aged two years, and Alice died the following Nov. 6, aged four years.
The oldest daughter, Angeline Amelia, took as her name, “Linn”, and was always known by that name. She never married. Lucetta married John Henry Cowan of Wallaceville in 1905, and they were a well-liked and respected couple.
Grove Guild settled on the farm adjoining his father’s, and cleared a good portion of it. He married Miss Della Proper and they had six children, four of whom survive and are: C.O. Guild of Erie; Mrs. Bessie Hipple and Hobson R. Guild, both of Titusville; and Mrs. Margaret Petit of Florida. The two deceased were John P. Guild and J. Ray Guild.
Victor Guild married Miss Hattie Lonctot of Troy Township and they always resided on the Guild homestead.
On Oct. 21, 1862, Romanzo sold the northern part of his farm to his wife’s sister, Mrs. Sarah Ann Kightlinger, for $200. This included all the land north of the spring run excepting five acres out of the northwestern corner which he deeded to Mrs. Caroline Slater. This left Romanzo approximately 92 acres. In March, 1881, he bought about 33 acres of land for $800 from Mrs. Nancy Alcorn. This adjoined the line road between Plum and Troy Townships and also adjoined the dirt road which leads down to Diamond. For some reason he didn’t keep this, probably being inconvenient to get back and forth, so he sold it three and one-half years later to Daniel Sullivan for $642, taking a loss.
During the boom around the oil times and civil War, Romanzo operated for a while a cooper shop which sat a ways below his house.
Politically, he was a Republican. From 1866 until 1872 he served two terms as a Plum Township road commissioner. Also, during the early and mid 1890’s, he was a township school director. It’s possible he had served as a director prior to that, but it’s not known for sure.
Romanzo was commonly known as “Man” Guild. He was a highly esteemed and respected gentleman. He didn’t use tobacco in any form, nor did he swear. An expression that he used occasionally was “By Goshen”. He was a very nice writer. In writing his signature he made quite fancy capital letters in both his first and last names. Instead of putting a dot over the “I” in Guild, he put a tiny circle. Both he and Mrs. Guild were very stylish dressers. People can still recall of seeing “Man” Guild driving by in his buggy all dressed up and wearing “kid” gloves.
A publication that they subscribed for in the early 1890’s was “The New York Ledger”, a journal of choice literature and useful information. It was published in New York City.
When certain neighbors of the Guilds, Mr. and Mrs. Herman Strawbridge moved from the present Charles Stevenson farm to Hamilton corners in 1900, Mr. Guild helped them to move, taking Mrs. Strawbridge and her children down in his buggy. Herman Strawbridge drove down with a load of hay. Riding on the hay was a girl who was staying with the Strawbridges for a visit, Miss Golda Sterling, who is now Mrs. Golda Rose in Rouseville. The day was cold and she was wearing the felt boots of Mr. Guild. When they arrived at Hamilton’s corners, she got one boot off but couldn’t get the other one off. Finally it had to be cut from top to bottom before it could be taken off. Thus Mr. Guild was in the market for a new pair of boots.
In the spring of 1906 Mr. and Mrs. R.D. Guild and daughter Lina moved off their Plum Township farm and into the house which had been his late father’s on Stone Springhouse corners. It is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Thomas. Coincidentally, he was back to the place where he had lived as a young lad. His son, victor, took over the Plum farm.
On May 23, 1906, R.D. Guild joined the Diamond Grange by card from the Cherrytree Grange, and he remained a member of the Diamond organization for the rest of his life.
Mr. and Mrs. Guild always made it a point to attend the public dinners sponsored by the Ladies aid society in Diamond. This seemed to be their favorite public function.
During the summer of 1907, R.D. built a new kitchen addition to the house and also tore down the old landmark, the stone springhouse.
On Monday, July 12, 1909, the couple observed their 60th wedding anniversary with the immediate relatives and friends present. A good dinner was one of the enjoyable features. Also a photographer came and took the heart-warming picture that is shown in this sketch. It was reported at the time that R.D. “still does the work of an average man on the farm, walks without a cane, reads without glasses, and on the day of the event just mentioned, he danced with the younger members of the party with a lightness of foot that surprised the on-lookers. He is 85 and his wife 81”.
It is said that R.D. was not in his usual good health during the winter of 1915. Whether it was then or at another time, he once had to have some skin growths removed from the backs of his hands.
He always walked to a neighbor’s, Floyd Campbell, to get his shaves and haircuts. He once gave an old straight-edged razor to Mr. Campbell who still lives on the same place as then.
During the fall of either 1919 or 1920, neighbors threshed buckwheat in R.D.’s south field across the road from the present Lester Dupont Sr. place. The men loaded the buckwheat in his buckboard for him, and he drove up to his barn and unloaded it alone at his age of either 95 or 96.
On Monday, July 12, 1920, the aged couple observed their 71st wedding anniversary and received many congratulations. They had fairly good health at the time. News of this anniversary evidently went over the Associated Press wires because they later received a nice letter from a kinswoman, Mrs. D.R. Melvy of Oregon, Wis., who read of it in the Chicago Daily newspaper.
R.D. Guild died on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 6, 1921, of an illness of only 7 days which Dr. W.J. Richey of Chapmanville listed as nephritis. He lacked slightly over 6 weeks of reaching his 97th birthday.The funeral was on Tuesday at his home with Rev. G.B.Mulvin of Diamond officiating. His death put Mrs. Guild in a rather confused condition. During the funeral she looked out the window and saw the hearse. She asked someone, “What’s that?”.
At the time of his death the couple were married 71 years, 6 months and 24 days! In this writer’s opinion this may be a record in the entire area.
Mrs. Guild died peacefully and quietly in the same home early Saturday morning, April 21, 1923, aged 95. The old couple and all of their children, with the exception of Victor, are buried in the Diamond Cemetery.
The Guild family had the reputation of having the greatest longevity of life of any family in the area. R.D.Guild was 96; his wife, 95; his great grandfather died at the age of 110; his father died in 1887, aged 95; his mother in 1874, aged 80; his brother, Preston, in 1926, aged 92; his brother, Lionel, in 1919, aged 83; his daughter, Lusella, in 1943, aged 91; his daughter, Lina, in 1946, aged 96; his son, Victor, in 1949, aged 80. The other son, Grove Guild, cannot be counted as he died at the age of 71 from head injuries received when he fell in his barn in 1927.

Transcribed by Paula Harry
dharry@pa.rr.com

Disclaimer:there may be errors due to transcription of information from both early and late (current contributors) work.