Lysander Childs
In western North Carolina, divided sentiments caused by secession and war lead to the formation of a new Baptist church – built on land donated by a northern transplant.
The story begins in the 1830s, when Col. Lysander D. Childs, a young entrepreneur from Massachusetts, moved South and settled in Lincolnton, North Carolina in Lincoln County. In 1843, Childs married Nancy Hoke, the daughter of a wealthy cotton industrialist. Thereafter, he became wealthy in the cotton business, purchasing a large plantation in Yancey County. Seven years later, in 1850 Dr. Ebenezer Childs (a medical doctor now aged 65) and Alvira Long Childs (aged 62), parents of Lysander, moved from Mt. Morris, New York, to their son’s plantation. Three of Lysander’s siblings soon followed their parents to North Carolina.
The large Childs family settled in Yancey County, establishing Childsville, which soon had its own post office. A grist mill, saw mill and mineral company followed, all owned by Childs family members. Meanwhile, the senior Childs continued practicing medicine. The community prospered:
In 1858, Henry E. Colton, naturalist, geologist and an editor of the Asheville Spectator, wrote about a visit to Childsville: “I am now enjoying the liberal hospitality of the gentlemanly proprietor of Childsville, Col. L.D. Childs, to whose energy and public spirit much is due; the fruit of his labors and example is seen in the improving and more refined condition of his section of the country.”
Census records for 1860 list fifty families in Childsville at the time. Then came the war.
In the spring and summer of 1861, Yancey County’s families became ever more divided to the point that the county itself split apart. The northern region, home to many Union and/or anti-secessionist families, including the Childs clan, formed a new county, Mitchell. Yet reflecting the larger Confederate sentiment in the state, the North Carolina legislature appointed Childsville as the new county’s seat, but renamed it Calhoun, in honor of John C. Calhoun, the seventh vice-president of the United States and a noted southern advocate of states’ rights and slavery.
In the coming months, northern and southern sympathies vie for control of the Mitchell County government, with southern sympathies eventually winning the contest. Three grandsons of Ebenezer Childs pledge allegiance to and fight for the Confederacy.
Meanwhile, in the midst of the struggles over loyalty, on October 17 Lysander D. Childs and brother Ehen Childs donate to the county fifty acres of land to be used “for the location thereon of a permanent seat of justice in said county; two acres for a public grave-yard, one acre for the site of a public school building, and one-half acre to be devoted to each of the following denominations for the erection thereon of church buildings; to wit: Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists.” From this gift, the Bakersville Baptist Church (Bakersville becoming the new name of Childsville-turned-Calhoun following the war) emerged, thanks to a northern transplant in North Carolina.
The Childs’ clan also proves to be generous citizens during the remainder of the war years. Commissioner Eben Childs is appointed to “oversee the acquisition of provisions and the distribution of food and money to families of indigent and deceased soldiers.” Lysander Childs uses his influence and fortune to save many impoverished families during the long war years. Sadly, Dr. Ebenezer dies on August 23, 1862, the result of war-time deprivations.
Source: Julia Taylor Ebel, “Childsville, North Carolina: Lost, Found, Lost Forever” and photo (link); John Preston Arthur, Western North Carolina, A History. Asheville, NC: Edwards and Broghton, 1914), pp. 200ff (link); “Bakersville, North Carolina” (link)
