Manuscripts Collection
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.
The James C. Christie and family papers document the history of three families: Christie, Stevens, and Monahan. This collection consists largely of chronologically arranged family correspondence and other papers of the entire Christie family, including James Christie's children: Thomas, Sarah, Alexander, and David; and Sarah's children and step-children: Buell V. Estella B., Francis W., Charles Edwin, Elizabeth Reid, and Mary Jewett. The collection also includes volumes, essays, newspaper clippings, printed materials, Civil War pension files, deeds, broadsides, programs, maps, commercial calling cards, cotillion programs, invitations, diaries, notebooks, account books, memorandum books, school registers, and a hotel register from Mankato, Minnesota.
This collection includes Thomas' and David's correspondence until the time they each married. Thereafter, separate manuscript collections exist for each of them: the Thomas and Carmelite Christie and family papers, 1843-1975, and the David B. Christie and family correspondence, 1871-1933, respectively. The letters by James to his son Thomas, while Thomas was in Turkey, are missing until 1884, after which they appear in quantity. Alexander's correspondence with his nieces and nephews continues in each family series.
The materials dating from 1835 to 1879 were generated chiefly by James Christie, his children, and other Christie relatives, with a few William Stevens items appearing in 1850. With the marriage of Sarah Christie to William Stevens in 1879, a concentration of Stevens family correspondence begins, while the Christie letters continue. In 1905 Elizabeth Stevens married Robert Hugh Monahan, introducing a third family line. However, there is relatively little from the Monahans and a great deal from the Christies and Stevens'. The bulk of the letters date from 1860 to 1930.
There is a sizeable subseries of Buell V. Stevens correspondence written during the time in which he worked as a railroad passenger car conductor, railroad office clerk, traveling dry goods salesman, rancher, and farmer (1879-1935). The bulk of the Buell's correspondence consists of the exchanges between himself and his stepmother, Sarah, his brother, Frank, and his sisters, Elizabeth and Estella. The subseries also includes a great deal of correspondence received by Buell from friends in Iowa and Minnesota.
The Christie family members were articulate observers, and their letters reflect social, religious, economic, and political conditions, both in the United States and abroad, for nearly one hundred years.
These records are organized into the following sections:
Microfilmed Civil War Correspondence (1.0 cubic feet) is closed to general use.
Microfilmed Civil War Correspondence. Microfilm (M539). St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1989. 3 rolls positive microfilm.
Microfilm available for interlibrary loan or sale from the Minnesota Historical Society. Inquiries regarding purchases by non-Minnesota residents and institutions should be directed to LexisNexis.
The Christie Family Papers are composed of three separate collections (P1281, P1282, P1283) of letters and other papers from several generations of the Christie family. The Christie papers were originally given to the Minnesota Historical Society in 1965 by a descendent of Sarah Christie Stevens (1844-1919), and were cataloged as a single collection. As more additions were received, the single collection was divided into three: the papers of James, Thomas, and David.
Accession number: 9920; 11,836; 11,841; 11,904; 11,983; 11,984; 11,985; 11,957; 11,958; 11,959; 11,962; 11,963; 12,054; 12,074; 12,110; 12,121; 12,138; 12,442; 13,255; 14,178; 14,860; 15,918; 16,367; 16,186; 16,219
Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project
grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission
Catalog ID number: 001730456
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The papers begin in 1823 with manuscript poems and jump to 1835 with the confirmation certificate of Elizabeth Reid. There are letters exchanged by Eliza and James Christie while she was in Scotland and he was in Ireland. In 1846 Eliza and her children were living with her brother, Robert Reid, in Connecticut while James was clearing land and building a cabin in Wisconsin during which James wrote of his struggles to become established on the frontier. There are only a few items written during the 1840s and 1850s, including a speech on spiritualism (1852) by James Christie and an anonymous essay on slavery (circa 1859).
The Civil War years (1861-1865) provide letters from William, Thomas, and Alexander Christie during their service with the Minnesota Artillery. Included are descriptions of St. Louis, Missouri, and Washington, D.C.; camp life; the battles of Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Atlanta; the character of the South; a visit to a munitions factory; transportation; and William's capture and release. Because of their popularity, these items have been microfilmed. Researchers may use the microfilm; the originals (boxes A and B) are closed to general use .
During this period Sarah wrote of her school costs and daily assignments at Fox Lake Seminary (Fox Lake, Wisconsin) while David and Alexander wrote about local people. In the winter of 1865-1866 the four Christie brothers traveled to Minnesota to find new farmland. Their letters to their father describe their journey and the land available to buy. A newspaper account by Alexander of this journey was published in 1897 and can be found in volume 29 (Box 40) in the collection.
For the remainder of this period (1866-1879) there is information on Sarah's teaching career and those of her friends from Fox Lake Seminary; her abortive career as a dressmaker in Beloit (1869); her career at Carleton College (1873-1875) where she taught German and English literature; her teaching experiences at Wheaton College (1875-1877); the grasshopper infestation (1873-1877); the temperance movement; Sarah's friendship with and marriage to William L. Stevens; and her friendship with A. A. Veblen of Northfield, Minnesota. The correspondence also describes student life at the University of Minnesota through letters to Sarah by her friend, Chelsea J. Rockwood.
Alexander wrote of his education at Beloit College (1867), the University of Wisconsin (1872), and Harvard University (1876-1877); his struggles to earn his way with teaching and tutoring positions; his mathematics studies; his fruitless application for a position at Wheaton College (1876); and his successful application for a job with the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (1878).
Thomas Christie's experiences at the University of Wisconsin (1866), Beloit College (1866-1871), and Andover Seminary (1874-1877) are described, as is his work as a book salesman, his courtship and marriage (1866), and his residence in Turkey as a representative (1877-1920) of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
In addition to the above subjects, Alexander, Thomas, and Sarah wrote to each other during this period about the various schools they had attended or in which they were teaching. They discuss discipline, wages, and the subjects taught.
James Christie and his sons, William and David, wrote of farming practices, including information on crops and yields, prices received for crops, and the grasshopper plague (1873-1877). Weather being such an important factor in a farmer's life, there are numerous mentions of blizzards (1875), tornadoes (1871), hailstorms (1879), floods (1879), and snowstorms (1865).
Folk medicine and illnesses, a cataract operation (1869), abortion (1868, 1873), and epidemics of typhoid fever are reported, as well as the prescription of medicine by Sarah Christie Stevens, who possessed some medical knowledge. James Christie and his sons, William, Thomas, and Alexander, exchanged long letters on religion, spiritualism, and infant baptism. There is correspondence between James and his niece, Helen Christie, about her conversion to Catholicism.
The undated correspondence is separated by authors, with an additional folder of fragments and letters from miscellaneous authors.
Written while stationed at the St. Louis Arsenal as part of the First Minnesota Light Artillery.
Acquired after the Civil War correspondence was microfilmed, the original letter has been interfiled with the collection's closed originlals.
Digital version
Much of the correspondence of this period was carried on by Sarah Christie Stevens or was channeled through her. Throughout her life Sarah maintained her interest in education and was especially concerned about the education of her four stepchildren--Buell, Estella, Francis, and Charles--and her two daughters, Elizabeth and Mary. She was elected county superintendent of schools of Blue Earth County, Minnesota in 1890 and remained active in school and church education. During this time she was also active in the temperance and women's suffrage movements and corresponded with social activist Eva McDonald Valesh. Several letters (1889) deal with the subject of abortion. She operated a butter (1886-1889) and egg (1902-1905) business from the farm in Rapidan, Minnesota. During 1903-1919 she was interested in land promotion ventures throughout the United States.
Thomas Christie wrote of his missionary work in Turkey (1877-1920) and his travels in Ireland, Scotland, the Orient, and the United States. He wrote of his relations with the Turkish government, and the attendant problems of the Armenian minority, plagues, and uprisings.
Alexander Christie wrote of his work for the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (1878-1893) and his efforts to be reinstated after his dismissal. He comments on life in Washington, D.C. and his long friendships with Minnesota politician and diplomat John Lind, and with H. Conrad Bierwirth of Harvard University. After teaching in Montana, he left in 1898 for the Alaskan gold fields and returned in 1901. He also describes a cross-country bicycle trip from Washington, D.C.
Of William G. Christie's letters only those to his father, brothers, and sisters have been located. He wrote to his father of his farm, crops and yields, and the deaths of his four children. In 1897 he began a series of letters containing information on the family's early life in Scotland, Ireland, and Wisconsin.
One of the significant correspondents in the Stevens family was Buell V. Stevens, who wrote of his experiences as a railroad conductor and clerk for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault St. Marie Railway and for the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway; as a traveling salesman for various firms (1881-1907); and entrepreneur (1901-1907). The correspondence reflects his efforts to secure and maintain commissioned sales positions with dry goods firms in the Midwest (1880-1890s); a short lived attempt to operate his own dry goods warehouse, McDonnel and Stevens Drygoods (1885); his attempts to establish a grocery store in central Minnesota (1901); business and investing partnerships with his brother, Frank (1887-1900); and land ownership in Boone County, Arkansas (circa 1916-1935). Buell eventually lived with his sister, Estella "Stella" Hall, in Indio, California, where they operated a fig and date farm (1913-1917). Buell's correspondence reflects his friendships with Myrtle "Myrta" A. Gerrish (née Chamberlain), A. Frank Peckham, May "Mae" Lucretia Petter (née Scofield), and Myra E. Van Dersal (née Kling), F. P. Breck, and his ties to his siblings particularly Bessie, Stella, and Frank. Buell V. Stevens died in Puente, California on August 1, 1935.
Estella B. Hall (née Stevens) lived in Minnesota, Washington, and California. Her 1879 correspondence indicates that she was engaged to "Mr. K," but called off the engagement in May 1879, shortly before it was rumored that he was killed in a railroad accident, though it also cites that she married Jefferson Kincaid of Minneapolis, Minnesota in the fall of 1879. They attempted to settle a claim of 160 acres in Grant County, Dakota Territory during 1880. In the spring of 1885 she married Andrew Jackson of Ortonville, Minnesota with whom she lived in Paynesville, Minnesota and later Washington. In 1897 she wrote of his abuses and drunkenness; shortly after (1898), she left him and took a job in the Eastern Washington Hospital for the Insane (Medical Lake, Washington). Estella married her third husband, John F. Hall of Boundary, Washington, in fall of 1899. John Hall died in a mining accident in 1903. Throughout the correspondence Estella wrote about her family; school teaching; mining and ranching; her employment at the hospital; her life in Washington (circa 1895-1911); the death of her third husband; the ongoing lawsuits brought against her over the estate of John Hall by his first wife, Anna Hall; her plans once the estate was settled; and her daughter Elizabeth "Elsie". The lawsuits filed over Hall's estate were not settled until December 1905. Elsie Jackson married Richard Lattimore on April 25, 1906.
Francis "Frank" Stevens wrote of his residence with Thomas Christie in Turkey (1880-1881) and his travels in Washington, Oregon, and other parts of the United States. He taught school in Montana, Oregon, and Washington. There is a continuous thread of correspondence between Frank and Buell that covers nearly a twenty-year period.
Elizabeth "Bessie" Stevens attended the state normal school in Mankato and taught school briefly before she enrolled in the medical school of Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota in 1902. There she met Robert Hugh Monahan, who was also a medical student. They were married on September 26, 1905 and graduated from Hamline in 1906. She wrote of her studies at Hamline, student life, her courtship, and marriage. Her later letters concern her work with her husband in the Northern Minnesota Hospital Association in Blackduck and International Falls, Minnesota.
Letters by Charles Edwin Stevens, who signs his letters both as "Charles" and "Ed," are relatively infrequent in comparison to those of his siblings. He married Margaret in 1889 and ranched in Daisy, Washington. Charles died in Los Angeles, California in 1924. There are only a few letters to and from Mary Jewett Stevens, who died at the age of 18.
Mr. Brown resides in International Falls, Minnesota. The bulk of the exchanges between Mr. Brown and Mr. Stevens pertains to the lands in Boone County, Arkansas.
Largely business correspondence about Mr. Stevens' positions as clerk and conductor for the railway. Frequent correspondents are: A. J. Underwood and W. M. Kellie.
For correspondence with Stella dating prior to July 1899, see: Jackson (née Stevens), Estella "Stella" B.
For correspondence with Stella dating after July 1899, see: Hall (née Stevens), Estella "Stella" B. and John H.
Largely business correspondence about Mr. Stevens' positions as clerk and conductor for the railway. Frequent correspondents are: F. D. Underwood, W. M. Kellie, and Jonathan G. Taylor.
For correspondence with Bessie prior to 1907, see: Stevens, Elizabeth "Bessie" Reid.
Letterhead also cites the company name as: S. H. Wood Produce Co., Grain, Provisions, Stocks and Produce (1893-1894); S. H. Wood & Co., Grain, Provisions, Stocks and Produce (1894); Wood & Co., Grain Brokers (1895); Wood & Co., Grain Commission (1895); and Wood Grain Commission Company (1896).
For correspondence with Bessie dating after 1906, see: Monahan (née Stevens), Elizabeth "Bessie" Reid and Robert Hugh.
For correspondence with Bessie dating after 1906, see: Monahan (née Stevens), Elizabeth "Bessie" Reid and Robert Hugh.
Later: Wyman, Mullin & VanDyke, Importers and Jobbers of Drygood, Notions & C. [sic]
Alexander Christie was James Christie's brother who died of yellow fever in Cuba in 1857.
Includes Elizabeth Stevens birth certificate, April, 1880.
Data sheets prepared during cataloging contain content notes on each folder of papers. Subjects and authors are noted as well as letters of particular interest. A separate summary sheet for each box of the collection relates the family's activities during that period and lists principal subjects. Incomplete due to subsequent additions to the collection.
On page 43 is an essay by Christie dated March 25, 1922.
Two farm diaries (Volumes 20 and 30, 1860-1864) tell of the happenings and daily weather on the Christie farm in Clyman, Wisconsin.
In the back of Volume 20 is a meteorological table kept at Fort Ridgley by Alfred Muller, October 12, 1865-May 1, 1866.
Contains newspaper clippings on his reminiscences of the journey to Minnesota in 1865, and of meeting with General Joseph E. Johnson in 1884.
Includes daily cost of food, 1922-1926 and list of books from the Los Angeles Library, 1924.
Taken to America in 1843 by Alexander Christie [1818-1857] and used by his brother James Christie [1811-1890].
Bought in Boston and taken to Wisconsin Territory in 1846.
The teachers were Francis Stevens and Doretha Gerlach.
Elizabeth Reid Stevens is in the Second Year B course.
Probably her assignments for her classes in Renville, Minnesota.
Kept by William Stevens; later observations and comments by Sarah Christie Stevens.
The printed materials include circulars, advertisements, pamphlets, leaflets, and maps. As the collection was being processed, printed items pertaining to certain subjects of interest to family members (e.g., land promotion, Women's Christian Temperance Union, women's suffrage) were gathered into separate files.
Photocopies of William Gilchrist Christie, Jr.'s Civil War pension file (#255203) and his wife Mary B. Christie's widow's pension (#569809). The original pension files are held by the National Archives, Washington, D.C.