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Isaac Peckham Christiancy was born on March 12, 1812 near Johnstown, New York, United States. He was the son of Thomas and Zilpha (Peckham) Christiancy. His father was a blacksmith until Isaac was eight years old; after that he cleared a piece of land and cultivated a farm. When Isaac had reached the age of twelve, his father had a serious accident, and it devolved upon the boy to help support the family.
Christiancy could only attend school three months in winter, two miles from home. His mother, however, taught him a great deal, and at eighteen he began to teach school. For a few months each year he attended first the academies at Johnstown and Kingsborough, and later the one at Ovid. In the fall of 1834 he took up the study of law with John Maynard in Ovid and was admitted to the bar in 1838.
In 1836, Christiancy became clerk in the United States land office in Monroe, Michigan. Later he was appointed the prosecuting attorney of Monroe County for three terms (1841 - 1846). In 1844 he brought his father, mother, sister, and two brothers to Monroe. Having become a prominent lawyer, he naturally felt a strong interest in politics.
From 1850 to 1852 he was a member of the Michigan Senate, while in 1852 he ran for governor, securing 5, 850 votes out of a total of 83, 308. In 1854 he helped to organize the Republican Party in Jackson, Michigan and was a delegate to the first national convention at Philadelphia in 1856. During the latter year he purchased the Monroe Commercial, and as its editor vigorously supported the Republican cause.
Early in 1858 he became one of the first four justices of the supreme court of Michigan. Volumes V-XXXI of the Michigan Reports amply testify to his keen sense of justice and equity, his thorough acquaintance with the fundamental principles of law, and his great industry. He was continuously reelected, until in 1874 he resigned the office, in order to go to Washington as senator from Michigan. He owed his selection largely to a split in the Republican party. Within eight days after entering the Senate he made a speech on the Louisiana election which won for him the respect of his colleagues. But his career as senator was not a success, and he resigned in 1879; whereupon President Hayes appointed him minister to Peru. Returning to the United States two years later, he passed his declining years in the home of his daughter, Mrs. Thomas O’Brien, in Monroe, Michigan.
Till 1847 Christiancy was a staunch Democrat, but the slavery issue impelled him to join the Free-Soil party, whose convention he attended in 1848 at Buffalo. When in 1854 the consolidation of the Free-Soil and Whig parties resulted in the formation of the Republican party, he turned Republican.
In November 1839 Christiancy was married to Elizabeth McClusky.
