Christie, A. J. (Alexander James), 1787-1843 : Alexander James Christie was a doctor, newspaper editor, writer, and office holder in Quebec and Ontario. He was born in 1787 in the parish of Fyvie, Aberdeen, Scotland, son of Rev. Alexander Christie, dean of Aberdeen. He married Jane Turner and they had at least four children: James, Thomas Andrew, Alexander James, and Elizabeth. Dr. Alexander James Christie studied at Marischal College, Aberdeen, and the University of Edinburgh, but there is no confirmation that he ever obtained a degree. Still, he practiced medicine in Scotland and Canada was invariably referred to as Dr. Christie. He may have served for some time as a surgeon in the Royal Navy.
Christie emigrated to Canada in May 1817 at the instigation of Thomas A. Turner, his brother-in-law, who helped establish him in a medical practice at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Lower Canada. By September 1818, he had become editor and part-owner, with William Gray, of the Montreal Herald. A dispute between the two partners ended Christie's involvement with the Herald in February 1821 and left him imprisoned for debt for three months. In the summer of 1821, he moved to a farm in March township, west of Bytown (Ottawa), in Carleton County, Upper Canada, but returned to Montreal to edit the Montreal Gazette and Canadian Magazine from March 1824 to August 1825. In the intervening years, he had kept writing, contributing to the Canadian Magazine and Literary Repository. As editor, Christie favoured a strong connection with Great Britain and warned frequently of growing American strength to the south and its antagonism to all things British. He lobbied for the building of canals and waterways along the St. Lawrence, including the Rideau Canal, to improve military communications and supported the construction of strong fortifications along the border. In time, he became an opponent of William Lyon Mackenzie and the reformers. Drawing on his interest in civic and medical affairs, Christie was active in the founding of the Montreal General Hospital and he also served as secretary to the Emigrant Society of Montreal. He wrote one of the earliest guides for emigrants to the Canadas, The emigrant's assistant: or remarks on the agricultural interest of the Canadas (Montreal 1821), gathering information by corresponding with men of influence throughout the two provinces. His writings made him part of the small literary community in Montreal along with men like Samuel Hull Wilcocke and David Chisholme.
When Christie had returned to Montreal in 1824, his wife and children had remained on the farm in March township. He returned to the farm in 1825 but, seeking the enjoyment of town life again, purchased a home in Bytown in 1827 and thereafter divided his time between town and country. In addition to farming, he practiced medicine and secured a temporary position as the medical officer for the workers on the Rideau Canal in 1826 and 1827. He was named coroner for the Bathurst District in 1830 and held other appointments in Bytown including public notary, magistrate, and agent for marriage licenses. Christie served as an officer of the Hull Mining Company, secretary of the Bathurst Agricultural Society, and secretary of the Ottawa Lumber Association. As coroner, he was active preparing for the cholera epidemic that reached Bytown in July 1832.
After purchasing the press of the Bytown Independent and Farmer's Advocate from James Johnston, Christie founded the Bytown Gazette, and Ottawa and Rideau Advertiser (the predecessor of the Ottawa Citizen) in June 1836 and edited it until his death in November 1843. About the time of this purchase, he built a new home on Sparks Street with an adjoining building to house his printing press. In his editorials, he called for the moving of the capital of Canada to Bytown and demonstrated his continuing interest in politics, in which he was an ardent supporter of his friend and March township neighbour Hamnett Pinhey. Indeed, some have attributed to him a satirical verse about Pinhey's 1832 campaign in Carleton County, titled, The Carleton election; or, the tale of a Bytown ram; an epic poem, in ten cantos. Christie died 13 November 1843 at Bytown, and was buried at Glencairn, his farm in March Township. His newspaper was maintained by the family for a short time and then sold.
For a thorough account of the life of Dr. Chrisite, see the biography by Carl Ballstadt in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
Christie, Alexander James, 1813-1880 : Alexander James Christie, Jr., was born in 1813, the son of Dr. Alexander James Christie and his wife Jane Turner. He was apparently educated in Montreal in the 1830s and married Susannah Watson Strachan. In these early years, he seems to have worked on the Bytown Gazette along with his father while his brother Thomas worked the farm, but after his father's death the family sold the newspaper. He and Thomas then jointly managed the family's economic interests until the latter's death in 1848. Alexander Christie was a contractor who worked on the sites of many building projects from the 1840s to 1860s in Canada and the United States, including railways, canals and bridges. He worked on Carillon Canal on the Ottawa River in the early 1840s, possibly the Rideau Canal too, and in 1848 went to Delaware County in New York State apparently to contract in the construction of railways. He worked steadily in New York from 1848 to 1851, for at least part of this time working on the New York and Eastern Railroad. Subsequent contracting projects took him to Columbia Co., Pennsylvania and St. Louis, Missouri for extended periods in the later 1850s. Susan Christie stayed behind in Bytown during his absences raising their family of four children, two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, and two sons, Alexander James Christie and John Christie.
Alexander Christie died 12 November 1880 in Ottawa of a stomach disease. Susan Christie (nee Strachan) died in 1891. Of their children, Margaret Christie married Hamnett Pinhey Hill, with whom her brothers, both lawyers, practiced law in Ottawa. Alexander James Christie married Margaret Bate in 1876 and they had a son, Harry Alexander Christie, and two daughters, Margaret Lizette and Evelyn Fay. John Christie and Elizabeth Christie did not marry.
