San Diego County Biographies
 
MRS. MARY F. CHRISTIAN

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://calarchives4u.com/

These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit 
or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations 
desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain 
the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of 
the submitter. All persons donating to this site retain the rights to 
their own work.
 
Of El Cajon valley, is a native of Virginia, being born in Jefferson County, 
near Harper's Ferry, in January, 1832. her parents being Colonel Brockenbrough 
McCormick and Nancy (Timberlake) McCormick. The former was a native of Virginia. 
Her grandfather was also a native of Virginia, owned a plantation and was 
wealthy. He had four daughters and two sons, to each of whom he left 200 acres 
of land when he died in 1830. The mother was the daughter of Harfield 
Timberlake, a native of Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. McCormick had three children: 
Mary Francis, Anna B. and Barfield T. Mrs. Mary F. Christian, the subject of 
this sketch, was the oldest. When six years old she went to live with her uncle 
and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Carter, at Fayetteville, Kentucky. Her early education 
was received in Pleasant Hill Seminary. When fifteen years of age she went to 
St. Catherine's Academy at Lexington, where she remained two years and graduated 
with honor; soon after that she traveled with her father, spent a year in Mason, 
Missouri, then went to Bolivar, Mississippi, where he remained during the 
winter; then went to New Orleans, thence to Hamilton, Missouri, where her father 
bought property, and she remained with him until the following fall, then 
returned to her old home in Kentucky. There was a great freshet in the South in 
1849, and the Mississippi river was swollen thirty miles wide. With other young 
people she made a descent of twenty miles on the river on a raft; the voyage was 
so hazardous that it made a lasting impression on her mind.
        She was married, November 11, 1852, to D. G. Christian, a native of 
Athens, Fayette County, Kentucky, born August 16, 1824. His father, Thomas 
Christian, was also a Virginian, and was one of the largest land-owners in that 
part of the country, owning 1,000 acres of that beautiful blue-grass land for 
which that part of Kentucky is famous. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and 
was in General Dudley's defeat. Mr. Christian had received a liberal education, 
and in 1849, when the gold excitement of California broke out, he was studying 
law with Judge Robertson at Lexington. He came overland to California with four 
or five others. He rode a mule and was six months on the journey. They arrived 
in Los Angeles and found only adobe houses; he and a friend went into the 
redwoods and sawed out lumber by hand until they had made; in a short time, 
$7,000. Then a company of them engaged in turning a fork of the Feather river, 
expecting to find gold, but were disappointed after having expended nearly all 
they had made. He then commenced gardening, and returned East, via the Isthmus, 
to get seeds; and his friends persuaded him not to come again. After being 
married they resided on a farm that his father gave him, consisting of 100 
acres, to which he added 100 more. In 1860 they went to her uncle's who had a 
large plantation and kept a number of negroes. Soon after the war broke out her 
husband enlisted; later he was taken prisoner, imprisoned at Louisville, 
Kentucky, was forced to take the oath of allegiance, and, on giving a bond of 
$25,000, was permitted to return to his home. In 1871, being in poor health, Mr. 
Christian came to California, remaining three months at the San Diego Hotel. 
Thinking the climate beneficial he wrote to his wife, asking her if she would 
come to a desert, and, womanlike, she consented. He erected the first house on 
Florence Heights, which cost him $3,500. It commanded a fine view of the ocean 
and at that time was far out of the town, but now the city has grown past it. 
They remained six years, then went back to Missouri and lived there five years, 
then came once more to California and settled in Los Angeles County, having 
bought a home in Artesia. They lived there about two years. Their son, H. T. 
Christian, seeing El Cajon valley, bought the place on which they now reside. It 
contains seventy-three acres, thirty of which are in fruit trees of various 
kinds and seventeen acres in vineyard, a portion of which is five years old.
        Mr. and Mrs. Christian had four children, only four of whom survive, 
namely: Harfield T,  Dodridge G., Jennie and Mary F. Harfield is now in the 
abstract business at San Diego. The father and husband, only two weeks after 
having settled here, fell from his own wind­mill and was instantly killed; he 
was an ardent lover of California. Three of the children now reside at home with 
their mother, who is a most interesting and amiable lady. She is a member of the 
Christian Church at Downey, Los Angeles County, California.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California… Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  317-318