Philip F. Eby was a Second Assistant Lighthouse Keeper at Crisp Point Lighthouse from February 16, 1917 until he was promoted to First Assistant Keeper on April 25, 1917. He also was a Second Assistant Lighthouse Keeper at LaPointe Lighthouse (Wisconsin) from 1913-1915. He was the son-in-law of past Crisp Point Lifesaving Station Keeper James Burton Hunter. Philip married Keeper Hunter's daughter, Mary B. Hunter. Together they had a daughter named Margaret Jean Eby (1913-1998). Margaret's mother, Mary, would not let her swim much of the year because the water was too cold at Crisp Point. Margaret told her daughter Aprill that one time she went down early in the morning and dipped water out of Lake Superior and put it in a bucket. She set it in the sun and later in the day, when it had warmed, she took it inside and said "I dipped this water this morning mother and it’s warm enough to swim, feel it". Then her mother let her go swimming.
Philip was born on April 17, 1870 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and died May 16, 1919 in Oscoda, Michigan. He had been diagnosed with tuberculosis in January 1919. He had planned to be transferred to Point aux Barques but he passed away before the transfer happened. Philip was buried in his family's plot at Pinecrest Cemetery in Oscoda.
CPLHS performed a marker ceremony for Eby on July 14, 2019 at the Pinecrest Cemetery in Oscoda. A video of the ceremony can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdV7cOgKPUg.
