Tehama
County
Biographies
G. L. CHILDS
One
of the leading mercantile establishments of Tehama County is the general store
at Manton owned and conducted by G. L. Childs, who has been in business here
for fifteen years, during which period he has gained a patronage covering a
wide radius of surrounding country. He
is a native of Tehama County, born on the 9th of January, 1882. His parents, Samuel M. and Mary Jane (Smith)
Childs, were natives of Indiana, from which state, in 1861, Mr. Childs enlisted
for the Civil War as a member of Company C, Twelfth Regiment of Indiana
Volunteer Infantry. He served his full
enlistment period of three years, taking part in many of the most important
engagements and campaigns of that great conflict. He and his wife came to California in 1880,
locating at Red Bluff, where he worked at anything that offered. He was a good citizen, in the best sense of
the term, and was well liked by all who knew him. He died in 1925 and his wife passed away in
1918, in their old home at Manton, in which their two daughters still
live. They were the parents of six
children, as follows: Myrtle, who is the
widow of the late James Morgan, and lives in the old home at Manton; Iva, the
wife of Lincoln Forward, a farmer in Nebraska; Mary, the wife of Ludwig H.
Meyer, a farmer and stockman of Manton district; Frederick, who is engaged in
farming at Round Mountain, Shasta County, this state; Frank P., who is a
stockman at Payne’s Creek, near Manton and is running a large herd of Hereford
cattle, for which he buys registers bulls from Nebraska; and G. L., of this
review.
G.
L. Childs attended the common schools to the ninth grade, when he began
farming, which occupation he followed until 1915, when he bought his present
store in Manton. He carries a general
line of merchandise, including groceries, hardware and drugs—in fact,
everything required by the local trade.
He carries a six thousand dollar stock of goods and his is the only
large store in this section of eastern Tehama County. He is courteous and accommodating and his
highest business ideal is to render such service to his patrons that his store
will be indispensable to them. In this
he has succeeded and many of his warmest and most loyal friends are among his
oldest customers.
In
1916 Mr. Childs was united in marriage to Miss Lena Buszdieker,
who is a native of Nebraska, from which state her family came to Shasta County,
California, in an early day. Her parents
are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Childs
are the parents of a daughter, Leslie Henrietta, five years of age, and pretty
as a picture. Mr. Childs has always
supported the Republican Party and has been active in local public
affairs. In 1926, in response to the
request of his many friends, he was a candidate for the office of
supervisor. He was elected and so
eminently satisfactory was his service in that capacity that he was reelected
in 1930 for another four-year term. He
has been a member of Red Bluff Lodge, No. 1250, B. P. O. E., at Red Bluff,
since 1912. A man of earnest purpose,
sincere in all the relations of life and standing “four square
to every wind that blows,” he is regarded as one of his community’s
representative men.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 60-63. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden
Nugget Library's Tehama County Biographies