Isaac Peckham Christiancy was born on March 12, 1812, near Johnstown, New York. His father died when he was thirteen years old. He worked as a teacher, and he eventually moved to Monroe, Michigan. He was admitted to the bar in 1836, and he worked as a clerk in a federal land office. He married Elizabeth McClosky on November 16, 1839, and they had at least nine children: Henry Clay, born around 1842; James, born around 1844; Mary, born around 1846; William, born around 1848; Caroline, born around 1850; Benjamin, born around 1852; Victor, born around 1854; John, born around 1856; and George, born around 1863.

 

He worked as a prosecuting attorney in the early 1840s. He supported the Whig Party, and he served as a delegate to the Free Soil Party’s national convention in 1848. By 1850, he owned $8,000 of real estate. He served in the Michigan senate in the early 1850s, and he ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1852 as a Free Soil candidate. He helped organize the local Republican Party in 1854, and he began editor of the Monroe Commercial three years later. He was elected to the state supreme court in 1847, and he served until 1875. By 1870, he owned $30,000 of real estate and $11,000 of personal property.

 

He was elected to the United States Senate in 1874. His wife died in December 1874, and he married Lillie Lugenbeel in February 1876. She was a 20-year old Treasury Department employee, and according to one reporter, the "great disparity in the years of the ancient bridegroom and blooming bride caused considerable comment to be made." Shortly afterward, "rumors were circulated to the effect that Mr. and Mrs. Christiancy did not live as happily together as newly-married people are generally supposed to live." He resigned from the senate due to ill health in February 1879, and he served as ambassador to Peru from 1879 until 1881. He filed for divorce in the early 1880s, and he eventually resumed his legal practice in Lansing, Michigan. He died in Lansing on September 8, 1890.

 

Image: Isaac P. Christiancy (courtesy Wikicommons)

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