BIOGRAPHY: John McPhee; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah Transcribed by W. David Samuelsen for The USGenWeb Archives Project ************************************************************************ The USGenWeb Archives Project notice Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ut/utfiles.htm *********************************************************************** History of Utah The Storied Domain A Documentary History of Utah's Eventual Career by J. Cecil Alter Vol. 2, published 1932 (expired copyright) The American Historical Society, Inc. JOHN MCPHEE, postmaster of Salt Lake City, has lived in Utah since early childhood. He was born at Kilwinning, Scotland, February 22, 1879, and was about four years of age when his parents came to Utah in 1883. He is a son of Charles and Jane (Dickie) McPhee, his father a native of Lanrickshire and his mother of Ayrshire, Scotland. His father after coming to Utah followed mining and prospecting. John McPhee attended the Salt Lake High School and as a youth was employed by the Street Railway Company. During 1902-04 he was absent from the state on mission work for the Latter Day Saints Church in Scotland. After his return he became a salesman for the Breeden Office Supply Company and Arrow Press, and was with those organizations for nearly a quarter of a century, until appointed postmaster on May 22, 1928, by President Coolidge. Mr. McPhee has always been active in the Republican party. As a churchman he has been most interested in recreational work through the Sunday School and Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association. He is a former president of the One Hundred Ninety-fifth Quorum of Seventy. Mr. McPhee is a member of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce and the Kiwanis Club. He married at Salt Lake City, June 10, 1908, Miss Effie Pyper, and they have one daughter, Mary Jane McPhee. The late Alexander Crookshank Pyper, father of Mrs. McPhee, was a man who contributed to the industrial development of Utah and was an important figure in the history of the state. He was born at Largs, Ayrshire, Scotland, May 18, 1828. On coming to America he spent some time in Saint Louis, then at Council Bluffs, Iowa, at Florence, Nebraska, and in 1859 crossed the plains, bringing several wagonloads of merchandise, with which he opened a business at Salt Lake City. He also established a chemical laboratory in the Sugar House Ward, and was employed by Brigham Young to conduct his private outside business. He was connected with one of the departments of the Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution and was the pioneer in the promotion of the silk industry, his individual enterprise setting a successful example and resulting in the upbuilding of this branch of business over the intermountain region. From 1874 until his death on July 29, 1882, he was police judge of Salt Lake City. He served ten years on the City Council and was bishop of the Twelfth Ward.