John Lewis Childs

Within five years of building his own seed and bulb business and starting America's first seed catalog business, Childs established a bustling business. The volume of his business is attributed with the expansion of the Floral Park Post Office and nearby village businesses. Additionally, Childs was responsible for building more than 20 buildings in Floral Park, including hotels, lumber mills and his own printing press. He also provided a public park for the community,[5] built the first school in town, and served as the first village president, which later became the office of mayor.[4]

He was a Republican member of the New York State Senate (1st D.) in 1894 and 1895, and during his term he ferried a bill establishing a State Normal School in nearby Jamaica. He ran twice unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. Congress.

Childs bought a great deal of land in the area around Floral Park.[4] His extensive land holdings related mainly to his seed catalog business, with more than 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) used for that purpose near St. James, New York and eastern Long Island.[1] Today, "Flowerfields" is an area within St. James that was founded by Childs around 1909.

Childs was an elected member of the American Ornithological Union and maintained one of the largest private ornithology libraries in the United States.[6] He possessed the largest privately held collection of over 1,100 mounted North American birds, most with nest and eggs.[7] He personally collected more than 700 specimens of this collection.[3] He was also a friend of John Burroughs, who contributed articles on birds to Childs’ magazine, The Warbler. Childs published the journal from 1906 to 1913.[6]