Series 7 - James & Elizabeth Christie letters

233pp

Kerby A. Miller created his transcripts of the Christie Letters from photocopies of original manuscripts held in the Minnesota Historical Society. Permission to publish the copies was granted per letter of 17 May 1990. The letters were subsequently published in Smith, Hampton, ed. (2011), Brother of Mine: The Civil War Letters of Thomas and William Christie (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press).

Materials pertaining to letters written by members of the Christie family who emigrated from Belfast to the Midwest United States by the 1840s. Per the Minnesota Historical Society, 'There are a few letters exchanged by Elizabeth, called Eliza, and her husband. At the time he was in Ireland and in Wisconsin Territory. One letter written by him in 1847 contrasts the life of a pioneer with that of a mill worker. Another letter from William, brother of James, written to their mother from Boston in 1846 comments on the Oregon question. There is also... ...a letter (1850) from W. Laugh [?] to Lucius Finley commenting on the prevailing "California Fever"'. The series includes: multiple copies of letter transcripts created by Kerby A. Miller; reproductions of the letters provided by the Minnesota Historical Society; the Society's description of their Christie papers; correspondence between Miller, the Society, and researchers and historical societies in the Midwest; and photocopies of published histories on Dodge County, Wisconsin and Blue Earth County, Minnesota.