Amos Guthrie was born around 1844 in Harrison County, Ohio, to Samuel and Catherine Guthrie. His father was a stone mason who owned $800 of real estate and $200 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Rumley, Ohio, and by 1860, he was working as a laborer. He enlisted in the Union army around 1863 and mustered into the Signal Corps. He died of typhoid fever in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on August 4, 1864.