Capt. John Boston Childe and the American Civil War

 

 

Generation No. 1

 

1.  CAPT. JOHN BOSTON1 CHILDE  (CAPT. THOMAS BOWLASA, LEWISB, JOHNC, THOMASD) was born 18 August 1820 in Roseside, Narbeth, Pembs., and died 1910 in Topeka, Shawnee Co. Kansas, USA.  He married ELIZABETH CHILD FEILD 15 June 1853 in Liverpool, England, daughter of RICHARD FEILD and MARTHA CHILD.  She was born 3 March 1822 in Hubberston, Pembrokeshire, Wales, and died 5 January 1899 in Topeka, Shawnee Co. Kansas, USA.

 

Notes for CAPT. JOHN BOSTON CHILDE:

 

 

John Boston Childe was the third son of Capt. Thomas Bowlas Childe of Neath, Glamorgan (the Childe family had previously been from Pembrokeshire) and Elizabeth Boston of Narberth, Pembrokeshire.

 

 

Article from the "Topeka Daily State Journal, 1909"

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Captain John B. Childe

 

This is of interest not only to Topeka people, but also toa at least six rear admirals of the United States navy, who served under him as ensigns and midshipmen in the civil war and just afterwards.  The oficers referred to are Rear Admiral Lamberton, who was Dewey's fleet captain at the battle of Manila Bay: rear Admiral Chadwick, who commanded Admiral Sigbee's battleship the New York, at the battle of Santiago, and ear Admirals Rockwell, Almy, Erben and Davis.  The admirals maintain a regular correspondence with Captain Childe.  These facts lend additional interest to a career which is remarkable in many other respects.

 

Capt. John Boston Childe was born at Narbeth, near Milford Haven, Wales on August 18 1820.  Near his home was a hughe ancient anchor which had probably belonged to a Viking ship.  It was brought from under the sea by the captain's relatives and was laid in the lawn of their home.  The wood of the anchor is petrified.  This object, it is not improbable, had much to influence the boy's future career.  Doubtless the sighT of it stirred him with a love for adventure.  At any rate he studied navigation when a boy.

 

At the age of eighteen whilst at Bristol, he went to sea with his brother who was in command of an American ship.  The vessel sailed for China, reaching there after rounding Cape Horn - a voyage of three months.  For two years the vessel cruised around the coast of China and among the Philippine Islands.

 

The last year of the voyage Childe acted as first mate.  That officer had taken sick and the then young sailer was given his place on account of his knowledge of navigation.  He was the only sailer on the ship who understood it.  He "made good."

 

Ten years later he was given his first vessel.  With it he started from New York to Point Peter, Guadeloupe.  On the way yellow fever broke out on board.  All of his crew except three died.  These few men helped him to weather the worst storm of his experience.  When he reached his destination he found that Point Peter had been swallowed up by an earthquake at the time of the great storm.  However he landed his cargo at Turk's Island and returned to New York.  Captain Childe continued in the merchant service.  He served as mate on the famous steamer "Pacific".  He was also captain of the "Lowder" a transport during the Mexican war.

 

When the American civil war broke out he was given captaincy of the army gunboat "Ranger".  Concerning this vessel, a clipping preserved from the Harper's Weekly of 1862 says:

 

"The Ranger" is one of the newly purchased vessels.  She is a propellor of eight hundred tons burthen and since her purchase by the government she has been entirely rebuilt, sheathed diagonally fastened and braced and otherwise altered to fit her new position.  Her engine is low pressure, condensing with a cyllinder of thirty six inches and a thirty-six inch stroke.  She is 160 feet long, thirty-four foot wide and with a depth of twenty-four feet.  She has accommodation for five hundred troops.  The captain is John Boston Childs."

 

The Twenty-seventh regiment of New York was on board.  The assistant surgeon of his troop was the father of Dr. L. H. Munn of Topeka.  The gun-boat took part in many of the navel fights of the war.  At various times Captin Chils was also in command of the Memphis, Junlata, Idaho and Pawnee."

 

After the war Captain Childe sailed along the west coast of Africa as a naval captain.  He also cruised up the Amazon and La Plata rivers.

 

Was Retired in 1869

 

This propical life impaired his eye-sight on account of the terrific glare of the sun.    On this account he was retired in 1869.  However, before this his chaplain on the Pawnee, who owned a farm in Kansas, had often told him of the advantages here.  Through his influece Captain Childe, as soon as he retired, came directly from New York to Topeka.

 

From here he went to Burlingame on the first train which ran over the Santa Fe to that place, then the terminus of the road.  He bought the second ticket sold to that town.

 

Upon arriving he went two miles east and bought a farm after fifteen minutes' negotiations.  It proved later to be underlaid with coal.

 

Here he is enjoying the fruits of a worthy life.  His postal cards and letters from the naval officers mentioned are among his most reasured possessions.  He recives word from them and replies even at the present time (1909).  When Admiral Evans was here last spring the old gentleman  enjoyed a pleasant visit with him.

 

Captain Childe is an interesting talker.

 

"Miss the sea?  Why of course I miss it."  He said to a visitor.  "I was on this ocean for thirty years continously and naturally feel it to be my home.

 

"On the ship on which I made my first voyage a cow was kept and three of us boys milked her for our own use.  We would take turns at milking while the other held his mouth so that he could catch the milk.  Then the rest of the crew wondered why the cow was dry when they went to milk her.

 

"Another amusing experience happened when I was at Manila for the first time.  I traded my shirt for a monkey.  However, the monkey scared me so I was not sorry when it escaped, although I was minus both garment and pet.

 

"However, anything but funny were our experiences with Chinese pirates who infested these seas in those days.  When the ship was becalmed a long junk filled with about 200 naked, heathen Chinese would often silently sneak along side of us and the yellow bodies would swarm up the side and on to the decks.  Then we would retire to the rigging.  From there we would deop glass bottles.  There would be a crash and yells of pains as the Chinese, with bleeding bare feet left our vessel for their own.  It was the best way of getting rid of them, as it was often twenty of our men against hundred of Chiness fully armed.

 

"The worst suffering I experienced was from the cold.  In those days except in the cook's galley there was no fire.  In cold weather our clothes would freeze on use, and we would go that way for days, sleeping in them at night.

 

"I was often in water to my neck as the waves broke over the ship in storms.  That tempest near Porto Rico - then it seemed as if the ship would be pitched to the sky yet we never lost a mast although we had only three men to do the work.  The rest of the cred had died with yellow fever on the voyage.

 

"However, I always did the best I could and tried to treat the men right.  In all of my trips near Africa and experience with the natives I had no trouble with the negroes.

 

His father was a British Army Officer.

 

Thomas Bowlas Childe, an officer in he British army  However, he was a sympathisor with the "Chartists".  These people were not willing to pay tithes to the church of England, although they were willing to be taxed otherwise.  On this account, they came to America in 1815 with Captain Childs' father. He bought lands for them fear Germantown, P's.  From this colony have come three millonaires.  Among them is Thomas Phels of Chicago, a millionaire Hardware man.

 

Thomas Childe returned to Wales and died there.  However, three generations of this family have lived in America.

 

(Source:  The Topeka Daily State Journal - Tuesday Evening, August 24, 1909).  (Courtesy of John Childs Neely, 1999)

 

 

 

 

USS Idaho (1866-1874).

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USS Idaho, a 3241-ton steam sloop, was built at New York as part of a Civil War program of large, very fast, steam cruisers. Completed in May 1866, she ran her trials the following August, making just over eight knots. Her boilers and engines, ordered as a result of political influence, failed totally to achieve her fifteen-knot contract speed.

 

Briefly laid up after trials, Idaho was converted to a sailing storeship in 1867 and sent to Japan as a base for the U.S. Navy ships operating in Asiatic waters. During that passage, she logged over eighteen knots, making her one of the fastest sailing ships ever built. In September 1869, while en route back to the United States, Idaho was badly damaged by a typhoon. She returned to Japan and remained at Yokohama until sold in April 1874.

 

 

More About CAPT. JOHN BOSTON CHILDE:

Burial: Topeka Cemetary

Fact 1: 1838, Joined his brother's ship in Bristol.  His brother was a captain of an American ship.

Fact 2: Married his 2nd cousin, Elizabeth Child Feild

Fact 3: 1848, Capt. Childs was given his first vessel  out of New York for New Orleans

Fact 1: 1861, Graduated from the merchantile fleet to be a captin in the US Navy at the outbreak of the civil war.

Fact 2: 1861, General Burnside gave Capt. Childs command of the army gunboat "Ranger" and told him to fit her out for service.  Capt. Childs collected a heterogeneous armament of guns and cannons of various types and calibers.

Fact 3: December 1861, Capt. Childs set sail in the "Ranger" for Hampton Road with the 27th New York aboard.

Fact 4: 1862, Captain of the US gunboat "Ranger"

Fact 5: 1863, The "Memphis" took part in the battle of Charleston, which sunk the "Ruble" an iron steamer from Liverpool.

Fact 5A: 1863, While serving on the "Memphis" he helped capture the "Princess Royal" an English blockade runner at Charleston, N. Carolina.

Fact 6: Bet. 1861 - 1865, Served during the civil war as 1st Lieutentant on the gunship "Memphis" and was at the front in most of the notable naval engagements.

Fact 7: Bet. 1861 - 1869, Commanded the US warships "Ranger", "Pawnee", "Memphis", "Junlata" and "Idaho".

Fact 8: Bet. 1868 - 1869, Captain of the "Pawnee" and did service in South American and sailed up the River Plate to the Andes and then sailed up the Amazon, then the Orinico.

Fact 9: 1869, Retired from the US navy and bought a farm in Kansas.

Fact 11: 1999, Capt. Child's civil war sword is in possession of his great  grandson, John Child Neely

Fact 12: Originally the surname was Childe.  Later is has become Childs.

 

Notes for ELIZABETH CHILD FEILD:

 

Elizabeth  was the daughter of Richard Feild, the shipbuilder of Milford Haven.  Her grandfather William Feild  was reputed to be the first shipbuilder in Milford Haven having been appointed by His Maj. the King in the year 1800.  His son Richard Feild succeeded to the business on coming of age.  On his death the business reverted back to the Government and merged into the Great Pembroke Dock Yard.

(Source:  Laura A. Childs Neely)

 

Elizabeth was described as " a  lady of fine education and rare intellectual qualities"  (Source: The Cronicle, Burlingame, Kansas)

 

 

More About ELIZABETH CHILD FEILD:

Baptised: 2 August 1821, Hubberston

Fact: Married her 2nd cousin, John Boston Childe

Fact 1: Went to America

Fact 2: 2 August 1821, Christened at Hubberston, Pembrokeshire, Wales

 

More About CAPT. CHILDE and ELIZABETH FEILD:

Marriage: 15 June 1853, Liverpool, England

       

Child of CAPT. CHILDE and ELIZABETH FEILD is:

                      i.    LAURA ANNE2 CHILDS, b. 23 March 1853, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.A.; d. 12 April 1932, Topeka, Kansas, U.S.A.; m. JOHN CHARLES NEELEY, 20 October 1887.

 

More About JOHN NEELEY and LAURA CHILDS:

Marriage: 20 October 1887