Christie, James C., 1811-1890.

James C. Christie, son of Janet Smith (1790-1872) and William Christie (1786-1819), was born September 29, 1811, in Dundee, Scotland. He worked in Sion Mills, County Tyrone, Ireland, as a master spinner and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1846. He had two brothers: William, Jr. (1813-1889) and Alexander (1818-1857). After his father's death, his mother married Alexander Bartie (1801-1884), who worked in the power looms at Dundee. They had two children: Jessie (1824-1914) and David Smith (1827-1879).

James had little formal education and educated himself through reading in many subjects. He entered into a betrothal contract with Elizabeth Gilchrist in 1829, and they had two children: William Gilchrist (December 18, 1830) and Mary (April 1832). Soon after Mary's birth Elizabeth died. Mary died at the age of eighteen months. Both are buried in the Logie Kirkyard in Scotland.

After Mary's death James went to Ireland to work in the flax mills, leaving his son, William, with his grandmother in Scotland. In Ireland James met and married Elizabeth "Eliza" Reid (1818-1850). They had six children: two sons who died in infancy, both named Alexander; Thomas Davidson (1843-1921); Sarah Jane (1844-1919); Alexander Smith (1846-1933); and David Bertie (1848-1920). Eliza Christie died in 1850, unable to deliver her seventh child. In 1853 James married Persis Noyes (1807-1887).

James' two brothers, William and Alexander, emigrated to the United States in the 1840s and found employment as machinists. During the winter season they worked in Cuba, operating machines used in the sugar cane fields. In 1846 they sent for the James Christie family in Ireland and the Alexander Bartie family in Scotland, which included Jessie; her husband, James Aimer; their daughter, Mary Bell; and the Barties' son, David. These families also emigrated to the United States, eventually settling near each other in Clyman Township, Dodge County, Wisconsin.

James Christie farmed in Clyman from 1846 to 1868. After 1868 he and his son, David, moved to Rapidan Township, Blue Earth County, Minnesota. They continued to farm there until 1886, after which they moved to Bridger's Canyon, Montana, where David established a sheep ranch. James Christie died on January 13, 1890.

William Gilchrist Christie, son of James Christie and Elizabeth Gilchrist, was born December 18, 1830, in Dundee, Scotland. He remained with his grandmother in Scotland after his mother's death in 1832, rejoining his father and stepmother in Ireland in 1840. During 1846 he came with his family to the United States and went to Wisconsin with his father and his uncle, David Bartie. By 1856 he was farming in Olmsted County, Minnesota. In 1861 he sold his farm and enlisted with his brother Thomas in the 1st Minnesota Light Artillery Battery, with which they served until June 1865. He was taken prisoner after the Battle of Bentonville (North Carolina) in March 1865. On December 30, 1865, he married his cousin, Mary Bell Aimer. In February 1866, he bought farmland near St. Charles, Winona County, Minnesota. He and Mary had eleven children. The 1880 diphtheria epidemic claimed three sons' lives; a daughter also died from it in 1901. William G. Christie died on September 19, 1901, and Mary B. Christie died on December 12, 1927.

Sarah Jane Christie, daughter of James Christie and Eliza Reid, was born in Sion Mills, County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1844. Her education at Fox Lake Seminary (Fox Lake, Wisconsin) was in part paid for by her brothers, William and Thomas, while they were serving in the Civil War. She graduated in 1863, after which she taught school in nearby communities. In 1873 she was teaching German and English literature at Carleton College (Northfield, Minnesota). From 1875 to 1877 she taught at Wheaton College (Wheaton, Illinois). In 1890 she was elected superintendent of schools of Blue Earth County, Minnesota.

During 1879 Sarah married William Long Stevens (1825-1914), a widower with four children: Buell V. (1857-1935), Estella B. (1858-), Francis "Frank" W. (1860-), and Charles Edwin (1862-1924). They lived on his farm near Rapidan, Minnesota, and had two daughters: Elizabeth "Bessie" Reid (1880-1961) and Mary Jewett (1885-1903). Sarah Christie Stevens died in 1919 in Minneapolis.

Alexander Smith Christie was born July 9, 1846, in Sion Mills, County Tyrone, Ireland. He was the third son of James and Eliza Christie to bear that name, the first two Alexanders both having died in infancy. When he was one month old his family came to the United States. He spent his early life on the family's Wisconsin farm. In 1865 he joined Company A of the 2nd Minnesota Infantry Regiment. After the Civil War ended, Alexander attended Beloit (Wisconsin) College (1867) and the University of Wisconsin (1872). He taught school in Wisconsin and Minnesota before he entered Harvard University (1876-1879), where he studied under mathematician Benjamin Pierce. In 1879 he obtained a position with the United States Coastal Survey. In 1887 he was appointed head of the Tidal Division of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in Washington, D.C.; he was dismissed from the survey in 1893. He spent the next five years in Minnesota, Montana, and Arkansas. In 1898 he left for Alaska, returning to the contiguous United States in 1901. The rest of his life was spent in Montana, California, and Washington, D.C. Alexander S. Christie never married. He died in 1933 in Washington, D.C.

From the guide to the James C. Christie and family papers., 1823-1975 (bulk 1861-1920)., (Minnesota Historical Society)