Henry Baxter Childs

HENRY BAXTER CHILDS, now living in retirement, is one of the pioneers of Kent county, Mich., and has been largely instrumental in developing its resources. He was born in Franklin, Mass., December 22, I814, a son of Asa Childs, whose maternal ancestors were natives of Wales. Asa Childs was reared to agriculture, was in fair worldly circumstances, and reared a family of three sons and two daughters, of whom H. B. Childs is the only survivor. The education of H. B. Childs was limited, and he began his business life as a wagon maker, at which trade he had served an apprenticeship, which he finished at the early age of fifteen, from which time on, until he reached his majority, he worked as a journeyman, and then became proprietor of the same shops at Charlemont. September 4, I839, Mr. Childs was united in marriage with Miss Emeline Hawks, also a native of Franklin, Mass., and this union resulted in the birth of four children, three of whom are still living, viz: Adeline S., wife of Edward W. Paine, a successful fruit grower of Algoma township, Kent county, Mich.; Horace H., a manufacturer in Plainfield township, is mentioned in full on another page; and William H., a miller, of Kansas City, Mo. In 1845, Mr. Childs came from Massachusetts to Grand Rapids, Mich., having previously purchased 491 acres of wild land near the city. In payment for I60 acres of this land he made 127 one-horse wagons, and, in fact, in the same manner had paid for all the land ere he came to the county. There were no railroads in the county at that time, Grand Rapids was a mere village, and Indians still roamed the adjacent forests. Agricultural implements were then of a make that we would now stigmatize as primitive, farm machinery was unknown, and oxen were used, both in the field and on the road, instead of horses. To the energy and enterprise of such men as Mr. Childs does the county of Kent owe her redemption, although there was a period when his energies were sadly missed for awhile and his enterprises nearly lost to the neighborhood. After having done much toward clearing away the forest, and placing the land under cultivation, Mr. Childs decided to leave the state. Consequently, in I856, he went to Christian county, Ill., where he passed nine years of his useful life. However, his attachment for Kent county, Mich., was never weakened, and in 1865 he sold off his Illinois estate of 500 acres and returned to Grand Rapids. Here he purchased city property and made his plans for erecting a paper-mill in Plainfield township. He therefore purchased a saw-mill on Rouge river, in Plainfield, in February, I866, together with ninety-two acres, and to this he added until he had about 200 acres in all. He completed the mill in 1867, the machinery for which was made in Beloit, Wis., and this was the first mill, up to that time, in which straw-board was manufactured west of Rochester. N. Y. In I868 this valuable plant was destroyed by fire. It did not, like the fabulous phoenix, live five or six hundred years, and yet, like that same fabulous bird, it sprang from its own ashes renewed and sound in all its parts and standing on its own solid foundation within twenty-four months. Mr. Childs was not the man to be daunted by a "little thing like that," but kept energetically at work in managing the mill until about I885, when he retired-a wealthy man, although really a poor boy when he began the battle of life. Mr. Childs was a friend of good schools and good roads-a part, indeed, of the platform of the political party to which he first belonged — the whig; later he became a republican. In religion he is a Congregationalist, and has expended a great deal of money in aiding to propagate the faith and in the erection of churches. in different parts of the country. He and Mrs.. Childs now live with their daughter, Mrs. Paine, who sees to it that their comfort shall in no way be neglected. Like a tired warrior, who gazes in triumph over the field he has conquered but still rejoices that peace has returned and that his labors have aided to bring this return, Mr. Childs rests in the complacent contemplation of the field he has conquered by less warlike means and replaced idleness with prosperity. Mrs, Childs represents one of the sturdy old New England families, going back to the Puritan days. Her father, Horace Hawks Childs, was for seventy years deacon of the Congregationalist church at Charlemont. He owned 500 acres on the. line of the Fitchburg R. R., and but a few miles east of the farm is Hoosac tunnel. He reared twelve children, gave them college trainings, and one of the sons is still on the old homestead.