John Guest was born at Staffordshire, England in 1829. He along with his brother-in-law and sister, Etheridge Hunt and Elizabeth Guest Hunt, migrated to the United States, arriving in New York on November 7, 1848. They settled in the State of Ohio, where John worked as a miner. There was an explosion in the mine where John was working and, as the story has it, he was one of the fortunate men who survived the blast and as he exited the mine dazed and with his clothes burning, a young woman, Elizabeth Tracy, wrapped him in a blanket to smother the burning material and gave him assistance.
On April 10, 1853 at Athens, Ohio, John Guest and Elizabeth Tracy were married. While still in Ohio, the young couple had three sons, John William II, Thomas Matthew, and Philip Benjamin. About 1859, with their young sons, John and Elizabeth left Ohio and sailed, via the Horn of South America, to California. The family settled in Bear Valley, Mariposa County, where John resumed his occupation as a miner, except this time it was quartz mining for gold.
John and Elizabeth had several more children that survived to adulthood, Eli, Lucy, Lillian, Annie and Mary. Unfortunately, a daughter Hannah died as a very young child.
Elizabeth died in the spring of 1874.
Several years after Elizabeth's death, John married the widow of another pioneer, Sarah Condray in March of 1882, Sarah died in March 1913, her remains are buried near her first husband in Bear Valley.
John William Guest I, as so many of the miners, including his sons, suffered from "miners consumption" or more specifically pulmonary tuberculosis. The disease eventually claimed his frail body. He died at his home in Bear Valley on November 15, 1889. He was a long time member of the Oso Lodge number 110 of Independent Order of Odd Fellows and his funeral was conducted by that Order on Noverber 16 at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. His remains were interned, presumably near his first wife Elizabeth and their child Hannah, at the IOOF cemetery in Bear Valley.
By Clayton John Guest