Ephraim Shay (July 17, 1839 – April 19, 1916) was an American merchant, entrepreneur and self-taught railroad engineer who worked in the state of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. He designed the first

Shay locomotive The Shay locomotive is a geared steam locomotive that originated and was primarily used in North America. The locomotives were built to the patents of Ephraim Shay, who has been credited with the popularization of the concept of a ''geared st ...

and patented the type. He licensed it for manufacture through what became known as

Lima Locomotive Works Lima Locomotive Works was an American firm that manufactured railroad locomotives from the 1870s through the 1950s. The company took the most distinctive part of its name from its main shop's location in Lima, Ohio. The shops were located between ...

in Ohio; from 1882 to 1892 some 300 locomotives of this type were sold.

Early life and military service

Ephraim Shay was born on July 17, 1839, in Sherman Township,

Huron County, Ohio Huron County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 58,565. Its county seat is Norwalk. The county was created in 1809 and later organized in 1815. Huron County is included in the Norwalk, OH ...

. His parents were James and Phoebe (Probasco) Shay, whose families went back to colonial New York. His parents were of majority-English descent, with some Dutch and Polish ancestry. His mother's paternal line descended from immigrant George (Jurriaen) Probatski, who was from Breslau,

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

(now Wroclaw, Poland). In 1654 Probatski went to the Netherlands and immigrated with some Dutch via

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

New Netherland New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the East Coast of the United States, east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territor ...

(New York). Over time, through Dutch and English marriages and variations, the name in the United States evolved to Probasco,Probasco/Bartoszewski/Bartos DNA Study - Results
Family Tree DNA, accessed 17 December 2015 probably within the first few generations. In 1861, Shay moved as a young man of 22 with family to

Muir, Michigan Muir is a village in Lyons Township, Ionia County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 604 at the 2010 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , of which is land and is water. ...

. Shortly after he enlisted in Company D,

8th Missouri Volunteer Infantry The 8th Missouri Infantry Regiment (aka the "American Zouaves") was an infantry regiment in the Union army during the American Civil War. Among its early leaders were Morgan Lewis Smith and Giles Alexander Smith, both of whom later became genera ...

. In his

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

diary A diary is a written or audiovisual record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digital. A personal ...

, Shay wrote, "Received marching orders. Quite a coincidence; on the day I am 22 years old I start on my first expedition to defend my country's honor and flag." Shay served in the Western Theatre of the war, under General

William Tecumseh Sherman William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), achieving recognition for his com ...

. He was honorably discharged in 1864, and returned to

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

to marry.

Marriage and early career

Shay married his sweetheart Jane Henderson on July 26 of that year. The young couple moved to

Ionia County, Michigan Ionia County is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 66,804. The county seat is Ionia. The Ionia County Courthouse was designed by Claire Allen, a prominent southern Michigan architect. Ion ...

, to be near his family members in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Lyons Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...

Muir "Muir" is the Scots word for "moorland", and Scots Gaelic for "sea", and is the etymological origin of the surname and Clan Muir/Mure/Moore in Scotland and other parts of the world. Places United States * Muir, Willits, California, a former unin ...

, and Sebewa. In 1870 they moved to

Sunfield, Michigan Sunfield is a village in Eaton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 578 at the 2010 census. The village is located within Sunfield Township. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total a ...

, where Shay operated a steam

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

. Their son, Lette, was born there on January 26, 1870.

Lumber and locomotive

After 1873, the Shay family moved to Haring, Michigan, where Shay established a general store and sawmill, basics in a frontier town. In 1876 or 1877, he had the idea to use a

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

to haul logs. He experimented with using

maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...

strips on

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

rails, to build rapid paths for a locomotive to travel in the forests, and developed the

. Shay started working with Lima Machine Works (later

) in

Lima, Ohio Lima ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northwest Ohio along Interstate 75 in Ohio, Interstate 75 approximately north of Dayton, Ohio, Dayton, southwest of Toledo, Ohio, T ...

, licensing them to manufacture this model. In 1880, the first Shay Locomotive was shipped to a customer in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...

, a center of logging on the Michigan peninsula. In 1881, Shay started filing

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

s for his works. William E. Woodard assisted Lima with improving the design of the engine. Lima built four Shay locomotives in 1881, and 37 Shays in 1883. In 1884, Lima had a 34-page catalog, featuring five models of Shay Locomotives. From 1882 to 1892, Lima sold some 300 of the Shay locomotives. By the late 1890s, Shay Locomotives were shipped around the world.

Experiments with steel

In 1888, Shay and his family moved to

Harbor Springs, Michigan Harbor Springs is a city and resort community in Emmet County, Michigan. The population was 1,194 in the 2010 census. Harbor Springs is in a sheltered bay on the north shore of the Little Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan. The Little Traverse Lig ...

Little Traverse Bay Little Traverse Bay is a small bay, 170 feet (55 m) deep, off Lake Michigan in the northern area of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The cities of Harbor Springs and Petoskey are located on this bay. Harbor Springs originated as ''L'arbre de C ...

. There, he designed and built in about 1892 what is now known as the Shay Hexagon House, a

hexagonal In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A '' regular hexagon'' has ...

-shaped structure. It has four wings opening off the central core and a two-story tower on top. The house has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. The interior and exterior walls were stamped

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

, an unusual use of this relatively new product. In 1891, Shay built an all-steel boat that was 40 feet long and a beam of 6 feet, named the ''Aha.'' Remains of the ''Aha'' have been returned to Harbor Springs and are preserved. Shay also designed and operated a private water works for the town of Harbor Springs. The use of steel for large lake freighters, developed in this period, was an important innovation to shipping on the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

. Shay established a railroad, the

Harbor Springs Railway The Harbor Springs Railway was a narrow gauge railway built at Harbor Springs, Michigan on Little Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan. It was nicknamed the Hemlock Central because of the great numbers of hemlock trees growing in the area. The railwa ...

(nicknamed the "Hemlock Central"), chartered in 1902. It was dissolved in 1912. Three locomotives of Shay's design were the only motive power. The railway primarily hauled

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

, but was also used for sightseeing. Shay also made sleds with maple runners as

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

gifts for local children, more than 400 sleds in total. Shay's wife Jane died on July 24, 1912. He died on April 19, 1916. He is buried in the Lakeview Cemetery in Harbor Springs. The Harbor Springs Area Historical Society annually sponsors the "Shay Days" festival at Hexagon House, on a weekend close to Shay's birthday. In 2005, the festival was held July 15, July 16, and July 17.

Gallery

File:2009-0619-HarborSprings-Hex.JPG, The Hexagon House today.

References

Sources

* Kyle Neighbors (1969) ''THE LIMA SHAYS ON THE GREENBRIER, CHEAT & ELK RAILROAD COMPANY,'' ASIN B001M07YHO * Michael Koch ''The Shay Locomotive: Titan of the Timber,'' World Press; Limited ed edition (1971) ASIN B0006WIHIE

External links

Ephraim Shay website

ShayLocomotives.com

Cass Scenic Railroad