TOWN MAKER
In 1731 it would have seemed highly unlike that a young man, working as clerk in a general store in northern Ireland, would be credited with the founding of two- not just one, but two towns in far off Virginia across the Atlantic Ocean. Both towns were destined to thrive and are doing well today.
We need to look back at our roots and evaluate our beginnings. It is part of nature that a plant without proper roots cannot grow well, or may need changes and treatments of a special nature to make them mature. Finding role models among men and women in our past is a good way to help such inner-growth.
The young man was named Israel Christian. He was thought to have been nephew of one Gilbert Christian. The young man migrated to the New World and landed at New Castle, Delaware in 1726. The many Scots and Irish who came here thorough that common port of entry on the Delaware river, found that the best lands had been taken by the earlier Germanic settlers, so they looked to the wilderness to the west and southwest for their own future holdings. Young Christian went up the long valley extending to the Southwest along the edge of the Appalachian Mountains and in 1732 he removed to a what was then known as the upper reaches of the Shenando River. He started building a home located on a site near a fast-moving creek which came to be know, as it is to this day, as “Christian's Creek”
Drawing on his experience, he became a merchant in the nearest settlement at Beverley's Mill Place. He became a prominent and successful merchant in what was to become Staunton, Virginia. He married Elizabeth Stark. He served from 1759-1761 in the House of Burgesses.
They had four daughters and one son. One of their daughters married Col. William Fleming who was to serve as Acting Governor of Virginia during the two week interim during which the successor would be to Gov. Thomas Jefferson. A second Christian daughter married Caleb Wallace, a man who became prom,prominent in the newly developing Ken tucky area. A third daughter married Wiliam Boyer of Botetourt and the fourth one became the wife of Col. Stephen Trigg They too lived in Kentucky and it was another that Israel's son -William Christian chose to be - liking the active life of frontier tier living. Israel must have found a great deal of satisfaction in know that a county in Kentucky was named for his son William and another honored his Son-In-Law Stephen Trigg.
In Virginia two town were founded by Israel Christian. One is tot town of Fincastle nd the other Christiansburg. They are each the County Seat community of their administrative area, and stand as fitting memorials to the life of a good man, who, I dare say, never dreamed. As lad in Ireland, how important his life would become to so many people.
Take time to reflect on the life of Israel Christian, another Man of Merit.
A.L.M. March 14, 2003 [c519wds]
