BIO:  William Moore GUILFORD, M.D., Lebanon County, PA

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Biographical Annals of Lebanon County Pennsylvania.
Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1904
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Page 35 - 38

WILLIAM MOORE GUILFORD, M.D.  Among the prominent and representative citizens of 
Lebanon county is Dr. William Moore Guilford, a well known and highly esteemed 
physician of the city of Lebanon, where he was born November 26, 1832, a son of 
Simeon and Catherine E. (Doll) Guilford.  He comes of Revolutionary ancestry, 
his grandfather, Simeon Guilford, having served for a period of six years in the 
Revolutionary army.

Simeon Guilford (2), son of Simeon and father of William M., was for many years 
prominently identified with the iron business of Pennsylvania, and won public 
approval as a skilled and reliable civil engineer.  He was born in 1801 – the 
same year that witnessed the birth of so many who later became distinguished in 
various walks of life – in Northampton, Hampshire Co., Mass., and from the age 
of fourteen years displayed those solid traits of character which the country 
accepts as distinctively associated with New England ancestry and environment.  
Previous to 1823 he had become skilled enough in his profession to be engaged as 
one of the civil engineers on the Erie Canal, which was then in course of 
construction, later in the same year coming to Pennsylvania, where he became 
principal assistant to Canvas White, who was the chief engineer of the Union 
Canal.  Mr. Guilford was too good an engineer himself to be blind to the 
advantages which he could not avoid seeing would result from the location of a 
different route from that already selected by Mr. White.  Mr. Guilford was able 
to prove that the route of his selection would diminish the cost of the work, by 
affording a better water supply by diminishing the waste of water or leakage 
occasioned by the interstitial character of the limestone region.  He was also 
able to provide a superior hydraulic cement, manufactured from an argillaceous 
limestone, which he had discovered on the line of the work, and its use in this 
connection saved the company many thousands of dollars.  In consequence of this 
important service rendered the company, he was presented by them with a set of 
Ree's Cyclopedia, of forty-six volumes, and this gift was accompanied by 
complimentary resolutions.

In 1827 Mr. Guilford accepted the appointment of principal engineer in the 
service of the State, which was tendered him by the State Board of 
Commissioners.  His first work in that connection was the survey of the route 
for a canal from Clark's ferry on the Susquehanna river to Northumberland, and 
in the short space embraced between May 31 and June 26, 1827, he surveyed both 
sides of the river, locating, platting, estimating and reporting seventy-nine 
miles of canal, besides side lines, alterations, etc., amounting to fifteen 
miles more, and also determining the locality of a dam of 2,200 feet, across the 
river, near Sunbury; a bridge of the same dimensions at Duncan's Island; and a 
dam and inlet lock at the mouth of Penn's creek, at Selinsgrove.  Before leaving 
the line he was tendered, by the citizens and contractors, a public dinner, at 
which he was presented with a pair of silver pitchers, appropriately inscribed.

On various occasions Mr. Guilford was called upon to make surveys, locate and 
render estimates of proposed improvements, his judgment and accuracy having won 
general confidence.  Among the important enterprises of this kind were:  The 
locks and dams on the Conestoga river and the Cohoes creek; a similar work on 
the Rancocas creek, N.J.; and on the canal and reservoir at Beaver, Ohio.

Between 1825 and 1832, Mr. Guilford discovered the celebrated Chestnut Hill iron 
ore, on the Greider farm, near Columbia, Pa., which he owned for some years, 
also three other fine deposits of hematite ore, in Lebanon county, and others of 
less importance.  In 1830-31, in partnership with the late Dr. George N. Eckert, 
he erected in the Swatara Valley, in Schuylkill county, the "Swatara Furnace" 
for the manufacture of iron by charcoal, and here pig iron and such castings as 
stoves, water pipes, etc., were produced in large quantities, this establishment 
remaining in operation for twenty years.  In 1853, for sundry reasons, the 
partnership was dissolved, and the works abandoned.  In 1855, in connection with 
other capitalists, Mr. Guilford started a blast furnace at Lebanon, making use 
of anthracite coal as a fuel.  This was known as the Dudley Furnace and use was 
made of the Cornwall one.

After retiring from the iron business, Mr. Guilford devoted his attention for 
many years to his property interests in Shelbyville, Ottawa and Chatsworth, Ill.  
In politics he was very prominent in the Whig party, and was its candidate for 
canal commissioner in 1843, failing of election on account of conditions which 
resulted in the defeat of the whole Whig party.

In May, 1830, Mr. Guilford was married to Catherine E. Doll, a niece of Judge 
Andrew Groff, of Lancaster.  Three children of their family survive, namely:  
Dr. William M., of Lebanon; Dr. S. H., a dentist in Philadelphia; and Robert E., 
a successful merchant in Shelbyville, Ill.  Mrs. Guilford died October 8, 1850.  
Her husband survived her many years, his death occurring in 1894, at the age of 
ninety-three years.

William M. Guilford was fashioned by nature for a physician.  His early 
ambitions were all in the line of medicine, and after finishing a general and 
classical course of study at Lebanon Academy, in his native city, at the early 
age of sixteen years he commenced its serious study under Prof. Henry Childs, of 
Berkshire Medical College, at Pittsfield, Mass.  In 1849 he attended a course of 
lectures in that institution, and also a course in the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons in New York City.  Upon his return to Lebanon he entered the office of 
John W. Gloninger, as a student, subsequently attending two full courses of 
lectures in the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, from which 
he gradutated in April, 1852.  Dr. Guilford spent the winter of 1852-53 in 
gaining valuable experience in walking the hospitals of Philadelphia, and in the 
meantime attended the lectures in Parish's School of Practical Pharmacy, in that 
city.

Thus qualified, Dr. Guilford located, in November, 1854, in his native city, and 
entered upon a practice which has been eminently successful, and which has made 
his name almost a household word through Lebanon and its environs.  Since 1854 
his faithful service and trained skill have been devoted to this locality.

Aside from his vocation Dr. Guilford has been a prominent factor in the progress 
and development of Lebanon, and has been connected at various times with many of 
the leading financial enterprises of the city.  He was one of the founders of 
and a director in the Farmers and Mechanics Bank, a director in the Lebanon 
National Bank, the Lebanon Trust & Safe Deposit Bank, the Lebanon Manufacturing 
Co., and other organizations.

Dr. Guilford has always been pleasantly associated with his brother physicians.  
He is a member of the Lebanon County Medical Society, of which he was president 
in 1892; of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania, being a member of 
its board of censors; of the American Medical Association; was president of the 
board of pension examiners in 1870; has been president of the medical staff of 
the Good Samaritan Hospital since 1889 and visiting physician of the same; was 
consulting physician to the Pennsylvania State Asylum for the Chronic Insane in 
1894-1903, and has been vice-president of its consulting staff since 1894; was 
president of the city board of health in 1887-88; is one of the censors of the 
Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia; in 1863 was second lieutenant of the 
Lebanon County Emergency Company; was one of the examining surgeons for the 
Ninety-third Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, prior to its muster into the 
service for the Civil war; and for fifteen successive years was appointed by the 
directors of the poor as physician to the County Hospital.  To those who can 
appreciate the duties attendant upon so many public offices of responsibility, 
it has been a matter of wonder that Dr. Guilford has so efficiently performed 
every duty, and in the meantime given careful and conscientious attention to an 
absorbing practice.

On November 12, 1856, Dr. Guilford was united in marriage with Mary, daughter of 
John Elder, and great-granddaughter of Rev. John Elder, a graduate of the 
University of Edinburgh, and for sixty years pastor of Paxton Presbyterian 
Church, where he was ordained December 21, 1738.  Four of the sons of Rev. John 
Elder were officers in the Revolutionary army.  The mother of Mrs. Guilford was 
Jane Henderson Richie, a native of Dauphin county, Pa.  To Dr. and Mrs. Guilford 
were born the following children:  Jane Richie, who is the wife of John Hurst, 
of Syracuse, N.Y.; William Moore, Jr., B. S. (Haverford College, 1890); Paul, M. 
D. (University of Pennsylvania, 1891); Adaline E.; and Arthur B.