Montgomery County PA Archives Biographies.....Childs, Louis M. August 19, 1852 - 
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Source: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County Pennsylvania, T. S. Benham & Company and the Lewis Publishing Company, 1904
Author: Ellwood Roberts, Editor

  LOUIS M. CHILDS, recognized as one of the principal 
leaders of the Norristown bar, is a native of Pennsylvania, 
descended from an early English ancestry. The family 
originated in Hartfordshire, one of the most beautiful and 
interesting counties in England, and the progenitor of the 
American branch came from the village about ten miles 
distant from the city of London.
  From the original Childs stock came John Childs, the 
paternal grandfather of Mr. Childs, born in Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, who was a farmer in Norristown 
township, and died in 1826, in early manhood. His wife, who 
was Ann Moore, survived him sixty-five years, dying in 1892, 
at the venerable age of upwards of ninety years. Joseph 
Foss, maternal grandfather of Mr. Childs, was of German 
descent, and his ancestors came to Pennsylvania early in the 
eighteenth century. He was a farmer by occupation, and a 
member of the Society of Friends. He and his wife, who was a 
Jones, both died early in life and on the same day, leaving 
two daughters.
  Jacob Childs, father of Louis M. Childs, was a native of 
Montgomery county and was born and reared upon a farm in 
Plymouth township. He removed about 1844 to Norristown and 
became one of its most useful and enterprising citizens. He 
was actively engaged in mercantile pursuits, and for some 
years in the iron manufacturing business. He was prominent 
in public affairs and served as a member of the town council 
for the unusual period of thirty-six years, and was for some 
years president of that body. He also occupied the position 
of borough treasurer for the period of six years. He married 
Lydia Foss, a native of Chester county. Both of Quaker 
descent, they affiliated themselves with the Society of 
Friends, but were not members. Mr. Childs died in 1886, at 
the age of sixty-four years, and his widow still survives, 
making her home in Norristown. They were the parents of five 
children: Mary, deceased; Louis M.; Walter F. and Emma H., 
(twins) and Lillian.
  Louis M. Childs, eldest son of Jacob and Lydia (Foss) 
Childs, was born in Norristown, August 19, 1852. Studious 
from the first, he laid the foundation of an excellent 
education early in his youth, graduating from the high 
school at the age of fifteen years. He graduated in a higher 
course in 1868 and again in 1869, and when only seventeen 
entered the sophomore class in the University of 
Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1872, in his 
twentieth year. For a year afterward he was engaged in his 
father's iron establishment and he then entered upon a 
course of law reading in the office of S. R. Fox, and was 
admitted to the bar of Montgomery county in March, 1870, and 
has since then been actively engaged in his profession, 
maintaining offices at No. 505 Swede Street, Norristown. 
With ample equipment for all the departments of law, civil 
and criminal, he entertains a preference for those of 
commercial and corporation law, for which he has developed 
genuine talent and aptitude. His abilities found almost 
immediate recognition, and he entered upon ample employment 
in conducting the legal affairs of various important 
financial and commercial corporations. He has been 
phenomenally active in connection with banking affairs and 
has successfully reorganized several banking companies, in 
some instances finding it necessary to conduct litigious 
proceedings, which served to prevent insuperable 
difficulties. Among the institutions thus reorganized, 
involving severe and protracted labor and requiring deep 
knowledge not only of law but of business methods, were the 
Tradesmen's National Bank of Conshohocken, in 1889, and the 
Doylestown National Bank in 1903. Mr. Childs has been for 
some years attorney for the Tradesmen's National Bank of 
Conshohocken, the National Bank of Norristown, the 
Jenkentown National Bank, the Montgomery Trust Company and 
the Bucks County Trust Company. He has also been for several 
years counsel for the Norristown Water Company, the 
Norristown Gas Company and the Standard Oil Company.
  Mr. Childs has always been an active and efficient 
advocate of the principles of the Republican party and he 
has wielded a potent influence throughout his county in 
maintaining its organization and aiding in its usefulness, 
but without aught of personal ambition or self-seeking and 
has never sought or held a public office. Mr. Childs was 
married, in September 1889, to Miss Alice G. Hibberd, a 
daughter of Norris and Eliza (Moore) Hibberd. Of this 
marriage have been born three children - Alice H., Marjorie 
and Louis M. Childs. Mrs. Childs is a member of the 
Presbyterian church, and her husband is an attendant there. 
The family home is at No. 15 Jacoby street.


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