Asa Partridge Childs (1804-1878)

He was born in Upton, Massachusetts, and came to Pittsburgh with his family in 1817. He inherited the wholesale shoe manufacturing business started by his father and ran it with his brother, Harvey. Together, they owned several cotton mills, tanneries, and flour mills. Asa was a co-founder of the Third Presbyterian Church and a leader in the Whig and Republican parties. In 1827, he married Frances, daughter of the Rev. Joshua Bradley of Randolph, Massachusetts. They had nine children until she died in 1848. In 1851, he married Martha Howard with whom he had a further seven children, including Adelaide, the wife of the famous industrialist and art collector Henry Clay Frick. Asa retired to Pennsylvan his Greek-Revival residence outside Pittsburgh.