The Childs family is
deeply indebted to Arlean Lenhart Childs for the untiring
efforts she has given to honor our family with this recorded
story of our heritage and personal lives. Arlean has traveled
from Massachusetts to southern California and scores of places
in between in research. She has spent countless hundreds of
hours gathering, from the internet, courthouses and historical
societies, sifting and compiling many boxes of information in
order to unlock the mysteries of our glorious past. She has
skillfully woven together the intricate details of a heritage of
which every member of the Childs family can be justly proud.
Our author tells the
story of a family who, generally, were deeply religious,
industrious, patriotic, leaders, promoters, and men and women of
vision. She has traced our surname back to the 4th century, in
the Norse legend, Iliad of the North. She traces our history
from the year 1081 which included merchants and bankers,
doctors, presidents of the United States, and ministers of the
Gospel. One of our ancestors was one fourth owner of the
Mayflower. Another relative Sir John Child was a Civic and
Military ruler, Governor of Bombay and Calcutta, India, and the
commander of all the land and naval forces of England in the
East. Another relative, Sir Josiah Child our ancestral line, was
a merchant, political economist and philanthropist. He was the
president and formulator of the first East India Company. His
observation concerning trade and interest on money contained
ideas far in advance of his day and generation. Sir Frances
Child, was a banker, goldsmith and Sociologist, founder of the
banking firm of Child & Co. during the sixteen hundreds, in
England. Other ancestors are: Samuel F. B. Morse the inventor of
the telegraph and Eli Whitney inventor of the cotton gin; George
Herbert Walker Bush, President of the United States and his son
George W. Bush, President of the United State; Frank W. Childs,
inventor and entrepreneur; Norman C. Childs, Sr. minister, Bible
scholar and author of religious literature; Norman C. Childs,
Jr. nationally known orator and author of religious books.
In this volume Arlean
carries us along a line of deeply patriotic individuals, for
example, twenty two of the fifty-seven minutemen, who gave their
lives for their country at the battle of Lexington, MA in 1775
bore the surname of Child. They were our ancestors. Eight of
those twenty-two were killed in the battle. She reveals the
hidden relationship that the family must have had with Jacob
Guy, founder of our beloved home town Guys Mills, PA. She tells
of the one hundred and sixty-four years, and seven generations,
of history of the Childs family in the Guys Mills area. She
gives us an account of one of Guys Mills’ leading citizens, a
man who, although an invalid for many years, operated from his
bed a most ingenious medley of businesses and became the most
prominent business man in the area. This man, my father, Frank W
Childs sold his products all across the United States. Finally
she tells of Bryson Nathanael Childs and Gabriel Clyde Childs,
the last males to carry on the family name of the descendants of
1780 Isaac Childs and Bryson’s and Gabriel’s three cousins:
Sarah, Leanna and Matthew Rowlette.
On behalf of my
sister and our families I again express our deep appreciation
for the years of toil Arlean has put into the writing of this
book, The Childs Story.
Your loving and
devoted husband,
Norman C. Childs, Sr.
