Our Neighbor Ephraim Shay
Last week, the City Council received an update on the Shay locomotive the students at the Industrial Arts Institute in Onaway restoring. Built in 1907 by the Lima Locomotive and Machine Works in Ohio, the engine was invented by our own Ephraim Shay. The plan is that the restored locomotive will join his "Aha" boat in Shay Park later this spring. Given the amazing job the students in Onaway did on the boat, I can't wait to see the engine.
I was thinking about Ephraim Shay as I watched our championship winning Harbor High School robotics team this weekend. Most of those kids went through Shay Elementary. I wonder if his spirit of invention and innovation rubbed off on the team. Our town certainly has a long history of residents, like Shay and his son, finding solutions to complicated problems.
I think we all regard Mr. Shay as perhaps one of our most prominent residents. His hexagon shaped home on the corner of Judd and Main Street is on the National Historic Register. The home will soon become the Ephraim Shay Innovation Museum and is planned to feature interactive and hands-on exhibit galleries demonstrating the importance of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) to economic and societal progress. Pretty cool.
Shay and his family weren't from Harbor Springs. He actually invented the Shay locomotive eight years prior to his move to our shores. He arrived here in 1888. Born in a small township in Ohio, Shay came to Harbor when he was nearly 50 years old. A veteran of the Civil War, Shay spent his early life downstate operating sawmills, a general store, and developing and selling the locomotive that bears his name. Shay spent his last 28 years here before his passing in 1916.
Having made his fortune elsewhere, Shay came to Harbor Springs with the freedom to continue to invent. From his steel clad home, he oversaw the construction of a small railroad from his workshop across the street in what is now Shay Park. There, he also built the city's first Water Works.
Mr. Shay's only son, Lette, was born in Sunfield, Michigan and moved with his parents to Harbor when he was 18. The younger Shay would join his father to operate the Hemlock Central Railroad in town. Lette Shay would continue live on Main Street with wife Katherine and three daughters after the passing of his parents. Lette Shay also contributed greatly to our civic life, having won election as Mayor twice before his death in 1934 at the age of 64.
Harbor Springs was fortunate the Shay family moved to Harbor Springs. They brought new ideas and innovations born of their unique experiences acquired in the decades of life lived prior settling on Main Street. It is exciting to hear about all the plans dedicated to celebrating this incredible and inventive family whose legacy continues to have a positive impact on Harbor Springs.