by Dorothea Guild, Jessie VanSweden and Marie Cross
arie Madaline Cardon Guild responded to financial need as well as a temporary need in the community when she converted her home in Piedmont, Wyoming, to a hotel.
She was born at San Bartolomeo, Piedmont, Italy, July 6, 1834, and came to the United States as a Mormon convert. With her family, she traveled from Italy to Liverpool, England, where they joined the Robert C. Campbell Company preparing to leave for the voyage across the ocean.
She met Charles Guild on shipboard. He had been born in Dundee, Scotland, on April 9, 1826, and was also a Mormon convert. When they arrived in the United States, they continued their journey by mule team which was driven by Marie from St. Louis, Missouri, to Salt Lake City, Utah. They arrived in the valley in 1854 and were married February 19, 1855.
Charles and Marie moved to Wyoming in 1866 locating on the Overland Trail just west of Fort Bridger at the Pony Express Station. When the railroad went through in 1868, they moved from the Muddy River to a railroad station called Byrnes. After The Guild’s arrived, the name of the settlement was changed to Piedmont from the name of the area where Marie and sister Catherine were born.
She and her sister, Catherine Cardon Byrne, were the only white women in the area at the time.
The Guilds built the first store in Piedmont which Marie managed. They also built a beautiful two and a half story home. Their eldest son, Joseph, was a talented carpenter and he built the home sometime prior to 1869. It consisted of a kitchen, dining room, sitting room, and parlor on the main floor with many bedrooms on the second floor. The second floor also featured a lovely balcony that extended across the entire front of the home.
Marie enjoyed her big kitchen with its wood and coal-burning stove and a big table on which she could roll out the dough for her man-sized pies. She would carry her meat to the balcony each evening to keep it cool and dry, then bring it back to a little room under the stairway where she would cover it with blankets to keep it cool during the day.
During the building of the railroad, there was need for a boardinghouse for men and Mary opened her home for this purpose and added the name PIEDMONT HOTEL to the front. The parlor was made into a hall for dancing and Charles would play his violin for many festive occasions.
A third floor was added to the building for more bedrooms and the hotel eventually contained twenty-two rooms. An iron picket fence completely around the building added to its beauty and the rooms were soon full of appreciative boarders.
Three meals a day were prepared in the large kitchen and Marie became famous for her delicious wild berry pies and bounteous meals.
Mary’s busy life taking care of the store and the hotel increased with the birth of eleven children, with nine of them surviving to maturity. As soon as they were old enough, they were all put to work in the hotel or store and the businesses thrived through the efforts of all the Guilds.
Charles spent most of his time running the ranch and it became a very successful operation while Marie became known as an intelligent and hardworking businesswoman. She is credited with being the first woman entrepreneur in Uinta County.
The proud hotel served well for many years and was run by Marie until her death July 21, 1914. Mr. Charles Guild died November 14, 1908, and Marie took care of the ranch, store, and hotel by herself for her last six years exhibiting astounding energy for her age. She was buried beside her husband in the Guild family cemetery located just a short distance from her own ranch house.
Information was submitted by Dorothea Guild, Jessie VanSweden and Marie Cross.
Guild Family Cemetery, Guild Ranch, near Piedmont, Wyoming
