Christopher Landers (Landis/Landess/Lanish) is said to have come from Manheim on Rhine, Germany. We don't know where he first settled in America but it could well have been that he came to Pennsylvania and then, like so many other of the time, followed the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. There is some evidence that he was in old Augusta County, Virginia and it would seem to be there, on 19 February 1762, that his daughter, Mary, became the second wife of Hans Michael Goodnight, who had also come from Germany, and lived briefly in Philadelphia's Germantown, before moving on to Bedford and Augusta Counties.

In 1764, he moved to North Carolina with his daughter Mary and Hans Michael Goodnight. There, he purchased land in Mecklinburg County. In 1771, he died and his estate was inventoried and entered in the October Court Session of 1771. Among the buys at the estate sale were: John Landis/Lanish, Widow Landis/Landish, Michael Goodnight, Henry Landis/Landish, Christian Goodnight, and Eve Landish. One item in the estate sale seems to be particularly significant; Widow Landis (Christopher’s wife Mary) was allotted £32-19-5 while the 'se ven legatees' were granted £18-0-3 each. This would suggest there were seven 'heirs' other than the widow. The object is to find the remaining three heirs. The problem is very nicely solved in the October session of the Mecklenburg County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, 1787: (in part ) ...said monies to be paid...for the orphans of Christopher Landess, dec,d., viz: Jacob, Felix and Elizabeth...

Christopher was buried in Concord Cemetery in North Carolina.