D. J. Guthridge

GUTHRIDGE

Posted By: Sheryl McClure (email)
Date: 4/4/2023 at 22:44:55

D. J. GUTHRIDGE is a native of Champaign County, Ohio, where he was born, Feb. 12, 1811, in which county he resided, receiving a common school education, until his fifteenth year; his father dying at that time, he was taken from school and placed in a mercantile firm, located in Xenia, Ohio, in whose service he continued ten years. In his twenty-fifth year, he married and settled down to business, and in 1852, moved to Oskaloosa, where he engaged in business as a merchant. In April, 1855, together with others prospecting the country, he visited the sites of Afton and Mount Ayr, and concluded to invest in Afton real estate, and erected the first frame store house in that town. Settling down in the goods business in Afton, he experienced all the inconvenience of a frontier life, having to team his goods from the Mississippi River. requiring sixteen to twenty days to make the round trip. Business men now, in this Centennial, 1876, who have their goods put down at their door, know but little about the disadvantages of trade in Union County in 1856. Of his means, he contributed, with others, to build up the interests of the town, and is today, with one or two exceptions, the oldest citizen of the town. In the early controversy, between Afton and Highland, which should be the county seat, he took a lively interest in favor of Afton, and contributed more than any other man for its continuance at the former place.

The last ten years, he has devoted much of his time, and most of his means, to the improvement of his farm, having Grand River on the east boundary for three-quarters of a mile, beside being intersected by Pisgah Branch, making all together a most desirable home.

Illustrated Centennial Sketches, Map and Directory, Union County, Iowa
Published by C. J. Colby, Creston, Iowa 1876