William Christy

WILLIAM CHRISTY was born in Trumbell county, Ohio, Feb. 14, 1841; he died late in March, 1903, at Phoenix, Arizona. He came with his family to Osceola, Iowa, when he was fourteen years of age. At seventeen we find him engaged in teaching school, and at twenty he entered the Union army as a private in Company I, Fifteenth Iowa Infantry, under Col. W. W. Belknap. He was afterwards promoted to second lieutenant of Co. D. Eighth Iowa Cavalry. He participated in the battles of Shiloh and Corinth, and was four times wounded while leading a cavalry charge at Jonesborough, Tenn. He was captured at the battle of Lovejoy Station, Ga. and remained several months as a prisoner within the Confederate lines He was promoted to a captaincy and at the close of the war was mustered out as lieutenant-colonel. After his military service he entered a business college in which he later on became a teacher. Returning to Osceola, he was elected treasurer of the State in 1872, and re-elected two years later. Upon retiring from this office he was elected cashier of the Merchants National Bank of Des Moines, which institution he had helped to organize. The following year he was compelled by ill health to resign, when he took up his residence at Prescott, Arizona. A year and a half later he removed to the vicinity of Phoenix, which became his home. He entered largely into the business of stock raising, fruit growing and banking. He first discovered that citrus fruits could be grown successfully in that region, and he and his brother also first introduced shorthorn cattle into the Salt River Valley. He was deeply interested in irrigation. His business operations were deemed of the highest importance to Arizona. On the day of his funeral the governor ordered the flag to be placed at half mast, and many other tributes were paid to the dead soldier and man of affairs.

SOURCE: Annals of Iowa, Third Series, Vol. 6, No. 2, July 1903, p. 157