Henry County GaArchives Obituaries.....Childs, Mrs. Amanda J. September 15, 1897
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Don Bankston http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00024.html#0005864 October 3, 2006, 1:42 pm

Jackson Argus – Butts County Week of October 8, 1897
Mrs. Amanda J. Childs

On the morning of the 15th of September last, near Wynn’s mill, Henry county, 
Ga., at 4 o’clock, Mrs. Amanda J. Childs, an aged and honored citizen, breathed 
her last – cause, heart failure.

She was born September 7, 1818 and was united to Mr. John Childs in 1834.  They 
had eleven children, 4 boys and 7 girls.  Her husband died during the war, 
leaving a heavy indebtedness for slaves purchased from his father’s estate, and 
some three thousand dollars of his brother; for whom he was acting as trustee, 
with the ravages and disadvantages of the cruel war; negroes freed, stock all 
taken away by the enemy, and eyesight gone from a severe attack of neuralgia – 
she was left in a sad and grievous condition.  But being a woman of pluck and 
energy, she and her little children liquidated all this indebtedness, and at 
her death, was doing well so far as this world’s good are concerned, and had 
been for years.

She was a wonderful wonderful woman of her day and time; was of very limited 
education, having had no educational facilities in her young days.  While she 
did not ignore education, yet, she believed strongly in plenty of “hog and 
hominy.”  She was a splendid financier, and a natural mathematician – could 
tell the price of a bale of cotton by her head, with its fractional parts, 
about as correct and quickly as those with educational advantages.

She was blind for more than 30 years, and yet could go alone into any room of 
her dwelling, and into the yard, or to the lot, with perfect ease and safety.

But a few years ago, while walking in another room, she accidentally fell and 
injured one of her hips, and was never able to walk any more.  She had a large 
armchair with rollers, by which she was able to go to the table and to her bed 
by pushing the chair and hopping along.  

Being connected with the family, I visited her often, and conversed with her a 
great deal, and through she was not permitted to behold the beauties of nature 
or look upon the faces of her children she so fondly loved, or her cherished 
friends that visited her, though she was not permitted to go to her own church 
which was but one mile away, to hear the gospel of her blessed Savior preached, 
whom she loved and trustee, and to mix and mingle with her friends in the 
unalloyed bliss of sweet communion and service; yet, I never heard her utter a 
word of complaint, and she seemed to be perfectly resigned to her fate, in the 
Providential dealings of her Lord, which characterizes a true Christian 
believer.

She had quite a number of grand children, but was deprived of the pleasure of 
seeing even one of them.  Yet, strange to say, she knew each one perfectly by 
their voices.  It was very rare she had to ask which one it was that spoke to 
her when they visited her.  She was a woman  of strong bright mind, and was 
conscious almost to the very last.  A short while before she expired, she asked 
the doctor if she was not dying.

Strange to say, her daughter, Mrs. Strickland, who died January 16th, last said 
just before she expired:” I’ll soon be gone, and Ma will be the next.”  And it 
was true.  She did not live quite 8 months.

She was a staunch Baptist, and believed the Baptist cause was right; yet, she 
had respect and love for other denominations.

Her children are all bright and intellectual, and inherited her energy and 
perseverahnce, which gives them that pluck and push that makes life a success.  
All her children are members of the Baptist church, except the younger two 
boys.  She prayed for them earnestly while living.

Imagine her seated in her large rocking chair or lying on her lonely bed in 
double darkness – blindness, and the darkness of the night – with no slumber 
for her sightless eyes, her heart yearning for those boys, supplicating a 
throne of mercy for safety and salvation.

I hope God will yet answer her prayers, and that those boys’ hearts may be 
softened into submission, and happily converted, and be permitted to join that 
saintly mother and others gone before, in the Spirit world, where a reunion 
will be inseparable and everlasting.

B. B. Strickland




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