As stated, Jacob Guy wrote in his diary
(daily journal) in 1818 and 1819 about the
weather and what was happening in the little
village. It is exciting to read these
accounts! Its puts me back there in that
time and place. He wrote: April 1st
Wednesday 1818 -- Weather clear and warm
signs of rain. Forenoon Braymer and self
laying up rail fence north side of
improvement - afternoon Braymer helping Mr.
Moore gather sap and stayed with him all
night. Sugared off in the house 18# sugar
out of Mr. Moore’s syrup. 7# we made in
house. Mr. M. L. was hewing mill timber. Hall
making rails, finishes what he says will
make (1900) in all - Waid hauled 207 rails
of Halls make. Dickson and W - making sugar
for self. Carpenter logging, made the
largest heap on the job. Daniel Hunt quit
Carpenter this morning.
April 2nd Thurs, 1818 morning rainy till 8
o’c day cloudy and warm. Braymer after rain
laying fence on north side of improvement,
afternoon west end-Waid hauling rails (110)
off Halls (30) off Wallhimmers. Mr. Moore at
sugar camp, sap run all night. Sugared off
in the house 23 1/4# dry sugar of Mr.
Moore’s syrup. Hall quit and went off this
morning.
April 3rd. Fri. 1818 Cloudy and misty.
Sugared off 15# Mr. Moore’s. W.L. split 403
rails old timber. Braymer and self finished
fence. M.L. is hewing. Door broke open and ?
eat Shannon's potatoes.
April 10th. Fri. 1818 Day clear and
beautiful. M. L. is hewing mill timber - Mr.
Moore hauling rails - Mr. Dickson working at
N. house. James sewing spring wheat.
Carpenter’s men thrased spring wheat
afternoon. Offered E. H. $15 per month for 7
mon. $75. cash when time out, clothing if
wanted. He wanted all money except what
wanted for clothing. Waid sick or unwell did
not work. D. H. brot his oxen to Carpenters,
making sled. James harrowing in Spring wheat
with my harrow. Old gentlemen has appeared
to be probably deranged for 3 or 4 days.
April Sat.11th 1818 Weather clear and warm.
Carpenter with Austin Owen and Eben. Hunt
laying fence for me. Waid went to Mr. C -
and got 2 bus. Timothy seed. 1/2 bu due. Sap
run Moore gathered 60 buckets. Dickson and
M. L working at new house. Eben. Hunt agreed
to work for me 7 months at $15. mon. Time
commenced April 6th. Carpenter to pay from
6th to this day. James has my harrow this
day. Daniel Hunt helped 1 or 2 hr. toward
evening and Eben helped him grind his ax. A.
Austin here to buy Spring wheat about noon.
I promised him 3 bushels, coming to thresh
next Wed.
April 12th Sun. 1818 wind at N/W and cool.
Mr. Chase preached at Capt. Walthroupe - Sap
run some. Dickson at Camp. Mat C. Eben Hunt
taking care of cow. Gave Eben Hunt $3. to
Mr. Radle for working. Susan came home from
Wm.
April 13th 1818 Weather clear and windy.
Cleaned up about 8 Bu. Spring wheat. M.L.
and Dickson working at house shingling. Mr.
Moore at S.C. brought syrup enough to make 8
gal. mollasses. R. Campbell finished sewing
Spring wheat. W cut big cherry and split 43
rails. Sap run forenoon, James sent keg for
whiskey by Hunt. James brot. Susan little
pail sugar.
April 14th Tues. 1818 Weather clear and warm
south wind. Grew hasey toward evening-signs
of rain. Small shower in the night. W.L.
finished splitting rails of cherry about
middle afternoon (160) Mr. Moore boiling sap
brought up 2 buckets syrup. W.L. hewing mill
timber. James came home with keg whiskey -
Set out 6 elm trees. 1 in hog pasture, 1 on
point - 1 by cellar 2 on flat fy the creek
and a great no. of willows and poplars near
the creek. Mr. Dickson forenoon at house,
rails ran out. Killed snake 1st I have seen.
April 15th Wed. 1818 Weather Sun more clear
and very red. Wind from the south. Flowers
begin to blossom. Carpenter had oxen to haul
load ashes in the morning. M. L. Hewing. Mr.
Dickson working for self. Mr. Austin threashed my Spring wheat, of James to sow.
Cleaned up 4 or 5 bu. Spring wheat. D.Hunt
left bag here for Capt. Walthroups if he
calls for it. W. hauling rails, making post
holes. Heavy rain commenced about 2 o’c p.m.
and continued until 1/2 after 4 oc. Mr. Hunt
called here on his way from town and talked
of Spanish War. Carpenter got straw-had oxen
to haul it.
Monday, November 1, 1819 the weather was
fine in Guys Mills but the visibility, Jacob
said was smoky. Jacob Guy had employed ML
and J W to shingle the mill. And hired Owen
to haul shingles. He himself was attending
the road cutting. Mr. Hunt, Eber Hunt and
Warner Waid were working on the road. Jones
was grinding. The next day, November 2,
Jacob said the weather was cloudy and
trifling rain. M. L. and W. M. finished
shingling mill. Jones Barney and William
Stewart worked on road. Owen and Moore were
repairing the hog pen. D. Hunt brought 2 Hds
salts to pearl. Wednesday the 3, Jacob
reports the weather was warm and pleasant.
M. L. finished the mill saddle boarding and
put all things in repair. Jacob Guy set to
clear away and pick up nails and left over
singles. Owen got up some. Moore did some
chores such as finishing the hog pen. Mrs.
D. was there also. Thursday the 4th
the weather was cloudy and equally
disagreeable. Jacob sawed 60 floor boards.
William hauled 5 pine logs from swamp. Moore
did some small chores. Wyman came and got 4
boards to make a sled box. M. L. and Braymer
worked afternoon on the road. John quit
Carpenter that morning in a rage. He went to
work for J. Brawley Esq. Friday, the 5th
some squalls of snow in the morning but
weather cleared and grew pleasant in the
afternoon. James put Jacob’s ashes in the
two leashes next to the pearl ash. Mr.
Thayer hauled ashes for him. Owen was doing
chores and cutting logs and wood for sawing.
Moore was repairing tools and small items.
Jacob Guys, himself sawed 240 feet of pine
boards and attended to the road. M. L. and
Braymer were working on the road. Valentine
Jones worked for Wyman in the afternoon.
Carpenter packed four barrels of scorched
salts for Hunts, he thinks about Cwt.
In only 19 days of recorded activities during
1818-1819 thirty four people are named. Two or three
of these are women. If these people were heads of
families and all lived in Guys Mills this could
indicate that there was quite a village even before
the mill was completed.
Schooling for the children of early Randolph
Township had humble beginnings. The curriculum may
have included Webster’s Spelling book, an English
reader and Daboll’s Arithmetic. Grammar often took
the back seat to writing and spelling. The Bible and
catechism were part of the curriculum. Quill pens
were used and it was the responsibility of the
teacher to make pens and keep them in good repair.
There were three organized schools in the Township.
The first was held in the Brawley settlement in the
southeastern corner of the township. The classes
were held in a log schoolhouse built in 1813. Around
this time, in the Radle settlement, northwest corner
of the township, another school was formed. Students
were also taught in the old blockhouse near the Fred
Wright farm.
The first classes in the village of Guys Mills were
organized and taught by Miss Mary Hetty Guy, Jacob
Guy’s daughter, in the second story of her father’s
barn. The first one-room schoolhouse in Guys Mills
was built in 1822 just 2.9 miles west of 1780 Isaac
Childs’ property. His children probably attended the
school in the Radle settlement which was closer. In
some schools the tuition was .75 cents per pupil per
school year. The term of school consisted of
sixty-two school days. Room and board was probably
provided in addition to the teacher’s salary. In
1834 the Pennsylvania Legislature provided for a
public school system, which gave all children the
opportunity for an education.
Slowly frame homes with wood shingled roofs began to
take the place of log cabins with thatched roofs.
Around 1828 Noah Hall was a peddler, who offered a
small stock of goods for sale. For several years he
supplied his neighbors with a few commodities. With
the influx of so many settlers, something of a
greater magnitude was needed.
The new nation was breaking loose and expanding
further and further west. Eighteen twenty-four, the
gateway through the Rocky Mts. was discovered. In
1830 the first covered wagon made the trip from the
Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains. The westward
movement had begun. It all sounds so exciting to me!
In addition to Jacob Guy’s titles of, Town Founder,
Guys Mills’ first justice of the peace, surveyor,
political activist, mill proprietor, and prominent
citizen, we now add "merchant." Seizing upon an
opportunity, Jacob Guy opened his general store in
1833. He had the land cleared and built his store
front on the present site of the home of the Dennis
Burchard family a few hundred feet east of the lower
bridge.
In 1838 James Foreman Jacob Guy’s son-in-law,
constructed Randolph Township’s first hotel and
tavern in Guys Mills.
The first post office in Guys Mills was also secured
during the 1830s. By the late 1830s the growing
community contained two churches, a newly remodeled
schoolhouse, the mill, hotel and general store.
In Eighteen thirty-six, the Alamo with 200 Texans
was captured by Santa Anna with 3,000 soldiers. All
the Texans were killed. By this time, the
Underground Railroad was well established. In 1841
the first covered wagon arrived in California by way
of the Oregon Trail. In 1848 gold was discovered at
Sutter’s Mill near Sacramento, CA, resulting in the
gold rush.
Guys Mills saw a lot of growth between the year
Jacob Guy established his home here 1815 and the
year of his death, 1850. Having made the pleasant
village his permanent home, he stayed there the
remainder of his days. It was not until the year
after his death; however, that Guys Mills gained its
well known three-story structure, the impressive Guy
House Hotel.
Jacob Guy’s son, Augustus, did not wish to continue
the Guy General Store his father built in 1833. Upon
his father’s death in 1850 he sold it and invested
the proceeds by establishing the Guy House Hotel in
1851. The hotel was built on a portion of the eight
thousand acres owned by the Guy family in the center
of the thriving village just north of the mill.
The following are
drawings of the inside of the Guy House:
