BIO: Maurice C. EBY, Dauphin County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, 
Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the 
Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: 
J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, pages 321-322.
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  EBY, HON. MAURICE C., ex-mayor of Harrisburg, was born upon the banks 
of the picturesque and beautiful Susquehanna river, in Middletown, 
Dauphin county, Pa., in May, 1846.  His parents, Jacob Rupley Eby and 
Elizabeth Gross Eby, introduced their first-born into the city of his 
adoption, Harrisburg, Pa., in 1847.  His career is now only to date 
from the age of maturity, having passed through the trials, temptations 
and vicissitudes of youth the same as any other city individual in this 
memorial epoch.  Lafayette College claims him as one of its alumni.  
The first to enter that institution as a pupil of the scientific 
course, he parted from the college to take a tour of three years upon 
the continent.  The greater part of the time was spent at Geneva, 
Switzerland, and Carlsruhe, Baden, acquiring the language, with plenty 
of leisure to visit the principle countries and cities of the Old 
World.  His knowledge gleaned from roving and strict attention to 
objects and places of interest, and associations with the people, have 
furnished him with a storehouse of personal reminiscences, places and 
old landmarks of invaluable profit and immense benefit, as well as a 
gem to his methods of intercourse and business career, enabling him to 
make a comparison between his own beloved country and that of foreign 
dynasties.  A bachelor with fixed and determined routine of daily life, 
merchant by profession, dating from the year 1871, of a domestic and 
club disposition, an admirer and patron of manly sports, upon water and 
land - in fact to such a degree that the Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals, together with the Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Children, appointed him their agent in this district, and 
many are the complimentary notices accorded him for his valuable 
interference and rescue of the injured and distressed.  He holds the 
honor gratuitously, and prizes it more than the gift of the ancient 
star and garter conferred by kings and princesses.  Mr. Eby is a 
charter member of the City Board of Trade, likewise the Pennsylvania 
German Society, and an active member of Dauphin County Historical 
Society.  In 1893 he permitted his name to go before the public as a 
candidate for the position of chief magistrate of the city, and the 
result of the count proclaimed him mayor, which office he held for a 
period of three years, and we quote from his closing address to the 
councils:  "My purpose in the future will be to live in our community 
as a citizen, obeying all the laws of the Commonwealth and ordinances 
of the city, determined to accomplish a good deed daily, and make a 
blade of grass to grow where none grew before."