Child, Linus

Born: 1802-02-27 Connecticut

Died: 1870-08-26 Hingham, Massachusetts

Flourished: Lowell, Massachusetts

Child was an American attorney, businessman, and politician. He completed his preparatory studies at Colchester Academy, and entered Yale College, from which he graduated in 1824. He read law and earned admittance to the Connecticut bar in 1826. After practicing a year in Dudley, Massachusetts, he opened a law practice in Southbridge, Massachusetts. In 1829, he married Berinthia Mason, with whom he had three children. In 1835, he won election to the Massachusetts Senate, where he remained for five years. As chairman of the Senate Railroad Committee, he helped shape railroad policy in Massachusetts. In 1845, he relinquished his law practice in Southbridge and moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, where he managed one of the town's large manufacturing establishments. He continued this employment until 1862, when he resumed the practice of law in Boston, entering into a partnership with his son, which continued until his death. A strong advocate of theological education and Christian missions, Child was for years a member of the prudential committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and of the boards of trustees for Amherst College, Andover Theological Seminary, and Phillips' Academy.

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale College Deceased From June, 1870, to June, 1880 (New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, 1880), 18.