Pioneer history of Ingham County, compiled and arranged by Mrs. Franc L. Adams, secretary of the Ingham County pioneer and historical society.

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PIONEER HISTORY OF INGIIASM COUNTY

because of his name. To the casual observer of the photograph,
McPhee appears as a man of middle life, because of the heavy beard
and moustache; but, as to fact. he was then in the heydey of his
youth and at the top of his powers as a skilled workman. He
was not yet 30. Eban McPhee, although of wonderful physique
and stamina, nevertheless died in 1884 of typhoid fever. Lansing and its vicinity, however, still claim five of his descendants.
There is John and Will and Mrs. William Saier and Mrs. J. W.
Higgs and Richard, a farmer of Eaton county. Richard was
among those to view the old photograph of his father Wednesday.
In some respects, particularly in the expression across the eyes,
he is very like his father as shown in the photograph.
An island of Scotland, to the north, the site of famous Inverness Castle, was the birthplace of Eban McPhee. As a youth he
was early apprenticed as a stone cutter and learned the trade in
all its branches. When he came to New York about 1870 he was
accounted a craftsman of the highest worth. Following his advent in America, he was soon attracted to Chicago, where his
services were in great demand following the devastating fire that
swept that city in the early 70's. Joseph Glaister, knowing of
the capabilities of Eban McPhee, brought him here by pay inducements, which, until the recent after-the-war period, would
have seemed fabulous.
Mrs. McPhee, then the wife of Eban, came to America about
the time he came to Lansing. It was upon her arrival in New
York harbor that she met Chester A. Arthur and James Gordon
Bennett. The experience lingers vividly in her memory.
Unknown to the passengers, the old Celtic of the White Star
line, had been engaged in a trans-Atlantic race with another ocean
liner. The Celtic won the contest and so the dignitaries of New
York, accompanied by a band, had come down to Sandy Hook,
with the pilot boat and other craft, to extend a welcome. "Oh,
I can see those many boats coming to meet us even yet-how their
sails whitened and glistened in the sunshine and the waves
danced!" exclaimed Mrs. McPhee, the old memory flooding back,
out of the past.
Arthur and Bennett were attracted to Mrs. McPhee because of
her slight, girlish appearance-and one may well guess, good
looks-and the fact that they could scarcely believe she was the