William R. Guild.—The standing of William R. Guild, cashier of the National Bank of Sabetha, as a private citizen and a man of affairs, is unimpeachable throughout that section of the Sunflower State which has been the scene of his activities, and where for so many years he has made his home. He is a native of Galva, Ill., born in February, 1869. He is a son of the Rev. R. B. and Susan (Bergen) Guild and the fourth in a family of four sons and three daughters: George A., cashier of the Central National Bank of Topeka; Harry L., cashier of the State Bank of Bern; William R.; Roy B., a Congregational minister and at present a leader in the great men and religion movement, with headquarters in New York city; Fanny G., the wife of the Rev. M. L. Laybourn, of Loveland, Cal.; Susan M., dean of Carroll College at Waukesha, Wis.; and Jessie S., a student in the Pratt Art Institute in New York City. All are living.

William R. Guild was reared at Galva until the age of eight and had barely entered the public schools when his father, the Rev. R. B. Guild, decided to remove to Kansas and take charge of the Congregational church at Seneca. But after two years Reverend Guild decided to return to Illinois, where his children could be afforded better educational advantages, and remained in that state until 1881, when he again became a resident of Kansas, taking charge of the Congregational church at Sterling, where he continued as a minister until his death, Jan. 1, 1889. The mother was Susan Bergen, daughter of Mother Bergen, of Galesburg, Ill., where Susan was born and reared. She survived the Rev. R. B. Guild until August, 1908, when she passed away in Sabetha, Kan. William R. Guild received his preliminary education in the public schools of Sterling, Kan., until the age of nineteen, when he accepted a position as bookkeeper in the bank of which he is now cashier. He started in on a salary of $10 per month, out of which he had to pay his board. He accepted that position in the fall of 1888 and remained with the bank until 1890, when he was tendered the position of bookkeeper in the Central National Bank of Topeka, accepted the position, and remained with that institution three years, until 1893. He then became cashier of the State Bank of Bern, at Bern, Kan., where he remained thirteen years, during which time he not only placed the bank on a paying basis but also developed those qualities in a marked degree which are so essential to successful banking. In 1906 he removed to Sabetha and at once entered actively into the commercial life of the community. For about eighteen months after his location there he was actively engaged in the real estate, loan, and insurance business; then he accepted the position of cashier of the National Bank of Sabetha. He has since filled the position and, together with the other officials of the bank—A. J. Collins, president; John Lanning and C. L. Sherwood, vice-presidents; and G. R. Sewell, assistant cashier—has made it one of the safest, best managed, and most popular banks in northeastern Kansas. Besides being a stockholder and a director in the National Bank of Sabetha, he is also a director in the State Bank of Bern. While he is assiduous in his attention to and labors for the success of the bank, still he is an active member and president of the Sabetha Commercial Club, which has done and is doing great work toward encouraging every progressive movement which tends toward the upbuilding of Sabetha. The city is indebted to the Commercial Club for many of its modern public utilities, and no member of the Commercial Club has been a more zealous worker toward securing these modern improvements than Mr. Guild. He also takes an active interest in church and Sunday school work, having been a trustee and treasurer of the Congregational church for a number of years, as well as superintendent of the Sunday school. Politically he is a progressive Republican, and fraternally he is a Mason, a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and of the Knights of Pythias.

In 1892 Mr. Guild married Miss Augusta Holland, of Sabetha, and this union is blessed with a daughter, Helen, now a student in Washburn College, Topeka. The family are all members of the Congregational church.