Christiana Crislip
1785–1855
The Christlieb-Chrislip-Crislip Family Association, in the 1980s, asked Association members to design and construct banners for each branch of the Christlieb-Chrislip-Crislip family. This banner represents Christina/Christianah/Christine/Tina Crislip Reed, the fourth child of Jacob and Nancy Christlieb.
Christiana (Friedrich Carl Christlieb1, Jacob Christlieb2) [186], was the fourth born child of Jacob and Nancy Christlieb. Although she is listed as Christina or Tina in some sources, an early listing of Jacob’s children, which was probably copied from the family Bible, gives her names as Christenah, as seen below:
Christiana was born 12 December 1785, the year that Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France, replacing Benjamin Franklin. At age 20, she married Jesse Reed/Read on 23 May 1806 in Harrison County, Virginia. A transcription of their faded handwritten marriage bond, dated 23 May 1806, is shown below.
Know all men by these presents, That we Jesse Reed and James Crislip are held and firmly bound unto Wm. Campbell, Governor of Virginia, in the juft and full fum of one hundred and fifty dollars to which payment well and truly to be made, to the faid Governor or his sfucceffsors, we bind our felves, and each of our heirs, executors and admisiftratos jointly and feverally, firmly by thefe prefents. Sealed with our feals and dated this 23rd day of May 1806.
The condition of the above obligation is fuch that whereas there is a Marriage fhortly intended to be folemized between The said Jesse Reed and Christiana Chrislip both of the full age. Now if there be no lawful caufe to object the faid Marriage, then the above Obligation to be void, otherwife to remain in full force and virtue.
Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of
[illegible signature], D.C. (District Clerk)
Harrison County Marriage Bonds, Book 2, p.159.
The above bond was signed by Christiana’s future husband with the signature, Jesse Read, and co-signed by James Crislip, who was, in all probability, Christiana’s brother, Jacob, the two names being interchangeable.
According to information preserved in the Reed family, Christiana Crislip was described as having been “a woman of splendid attainments, intelligent and of good appearance.” Known to have been a shrewd horse trader, Christiana’s husband, Jesse Reed, was of English origin. Some believe that he is the Jesse Reed who served in the War of 1812. War of 1812 Pensioners, Vol. III, Reed, Jesse 50-8114, Captain Mark’s Virginia Militia.
Harrison County, Virginia, Tithable Lists show that Jesse Reed paid taxes there 1805 to 1820. He is shown on the 1810 United States Census for Harrison County, Virginia, with a wife, one son, and one daughter. The Harrison County Court Minute Books show him involved in cases for money owed in 1810 and 1823. Jesse’s property is identified on an 1827 Court Road Order. On the 1830 Census for Eastern Harrison County, Jesse Reed’s age is 40–50 years, with a wife of the same age, six sons and two daughters. In the same year he was involved in a legal action naming two of his brothers-in-law, Isaac and Samuel Crislip. In all probability he was conveying land in anticipation of their departure for Ohio. Later, in 1830, Jesse and Christiana and their younger children left Virginia for Union County, Ohio, to join their older three married children. Their eldest child, Jacob Crislip Reed, had left previously in 1825 for Champaign County, Ohio, returning to his family in 1828 to bring his next two oldest siblings, Sarah and William, back with him for over 200 miles to Champaign County, Ohio. The 1883 History of Union County, Ohio, states that the families moved, in 1830, to Union County where land was only $1.25 per acre.
Dated 18 July 1850, the following is from the Federal Census, showing Jesse Reed, farmer, born in Virginia; Christiana born Pennsylvania; son E.S.D. (Edwin Simpson Duncan) Reed, farmer, born Virginia; and his new wife Susan (Eckert) born Ohio. The census record shows the family residing in Jackson Township, Union County, Ohio.
This excerpt from the 1850 census shows Christiana's place of birth was Pennsylvania.
Jesse and Christiana Reed eventually settled in the town of Richwood, in Union County, Ohio. Having been married to Jesse Reed for 49 years, Christiana died on 22 October 1855, at age 69.
Christiana Crislip Reed was buried in the town cemetery, Old Richwood Cemetery, behind the Baptist Church in Richwood, Union County, Ohio. Her gravestone features an incised open Bible and this inscription: CHRISTIANA, WIFE OF JESSE REED, DIED OCTOBER 22, 1855 – AGE 69 YEARS, 10 MONTHS, 20 DAYS. There is no gravestone for her husband, nor does he appear to be listed in early inventories. Thus, Jesse Reed’s burial site remains unknown.
Their son, Jesse Crislip Reed, married his second wife, Hannah Graham Latson, on 5 November 1856, thirteen months after his mother, Christiana, died, and a year after his first wife, Catherine Bridge, died. From time to time it has been incorrectly assumed that this was a second marriage for Jesse Crislip Reed’s father.
Christiana (Crislip) Reed Headstone
Children of Christiana Crislip and Jesse Reed
Jacob Crislip Reed (Friedrich Carl Christlieb1, Jacob Christlieb2, Christiana Crislip3) [188], born 14 March 1807, Harrison County, Virginia; died 14 February 1880, Washington Township, Keokuk County, Iowa. When his grandfather, Jacob Christlieb, made his will in 1821, he bequeathed $5.00 to Jacob. Jacob Crislip Reed married 1st, 14 August 1828, Champaign County, Ohio, Elizabeth Cameron, born Pennsylvania in March 1809; died 1835 in Union County, Ohio; daughter of Joseph Cameron and Ann Dorothea Peck; married 2nd, 9 March 1835, Union County, Ohio, Ann Shisler, born July 1817, Ross County, Ohio; died 30 May 1899, Springfield, Cedar County, Iowa; daughter of Henry Shisler. Union County, Ohio Marriage Index, Vol. 1, page 164, No.359.
Sarah Jane Reed (Friedrich Carl Christlieb1, Jacob Christlieb2, Christiana Crislip3) [250], born 1 April 1809, Harrison County, Virginia; died 26 December 1891, Urbana, Champaign County, Ohio; married, March 26, 1829, Champaign County, Ohio, to Joseph Cameron, born Pennsylvania, 3 January 1807, son of John Cameron and Ann Dorothea Peck; died 20 June 1872, Union County, Ohio. In 1828, Sarah Jane Reed, along with her brothers, Jacob and William, rode horseback, a distance of 250 miles from Virginia to Champaign County, Ohio, where, in the following spring, she wedded Joseph Cameron. In 1830, they removed to Jackson Township near Richwood, Ohio. Sarah Jane Reed and Joseph Cameron were the parents of 13 children, one of whom fought in the Civil War and was the first white child born in Jackson Township, Ohio. History of Union County, Ohio, Volume II, p. 502.
William Reed (Friedrich Carl Christlieb1, Jacob Christlieb2, Christiana Crislip3) [293], born 1812, Harrison County, Virginia; died after 1880, DeWitt, Clinton, Iowa; married, 18 December 1834, Champaign, Ohio, Elizabeth McMullen, born 1813, Logan, Ohio. They resided in Mingo Valley, Ohio, and later removed to near DeWitt, Iowa.
Matilda Reed (Friedrich Carl Christlieb1, Jacob Christlieb2, Christiana Crislip3) [294], born ca. 1815, Harrison County, Virginia; died 1 November 1861, Jones County, Iowa; married, 7 August 1833, Asael Mershon, son of Cornelius Mershon and Anna Louise Hendrickson, born 6 March 1813, Kentucky; died 22 December 1865, Jones County, Iowa.
Jesse Crislip Reed (Friedrich Carl Christlieb1, Jacob Christlieb2, Christiana Crislip3) [300], born 1 September 1816, Harrison County, Virginia; died 4 July 1889, Keokuk County, Iowa; married 1st, 22 October 1840, Champaign County, Ohio, Catherine Bridge, daughter of Bazael and Almira Bridge, born 6 November 1822, Union County, Ohio; died 27 September 1855, Union County, Ohio; married 2nd, 1 November 1856, Hannah Graham (Widow Latson), born ca. 1835, Ohio. Jesse Crislip Reed, Jr. was a prosperous merchant. He settled in Richwood, Ohio in 1847. He later removed to Springfield, Iowa, and later to Delta, Iowa, where he died.
Nancy C. Reed (Friedrich Carl Christlieb1, Jacob Christlieb2, Christiana Crislip3) [318], born 1823, Harrison County, Virginia; died shortly before November 1896; married, 7 June 1838, Logan County, Ohio, Bethuel McMullen, born 1817 in Ohio; died 9 March 1875, in Florence, Kansas. He served in the Union Army from Iowa in the Civil War. Nancy received a widow's pension in October 1880.
Samuel Reed (Friedrich Carl Christlieb1, Jacob Christlieb2, Christiana Crislip3) [320], born 1823, Harrison County, Virginia; died 1825, Harrison County, Virginia. No further information.
Edwin Simpson Duncan Reed (Friedrich Carl Christlieb1, Jacob Christlieb2, Christiana Crislip3) [320], born 1 May 1829, Harrison County, Virginia; died 15 August 1859, Union County, Ohio; married, 4 March 1850, in Union County, Ohio, Susanna Eckert, born 15 February 1832, Union County, Ohio, daughter of Lemont Eckert and Nancy Van Tries.
