Andrew Malcolm McPhail Jr.

Andrew M. McPhail Jr.

State Library of Massachusetts

Quick Facts

Significance:

Boston Vigilance Committee member, piano manufacturer

Place of Birth:

Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada

Date of Birth:

February 28, 1817

Place of Death:

Omaha, Nebraska

Date of Death:

October 2, 1902

Place of Burial:

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cemetery Name:

Mount Auburn Cemetery

Piano manufacturer Andrew M. McPhail Jr. served as a member of the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee.

Born in 1817 in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, Andrew Malcolm McPhail Jr. moved to Boston in the 1830s.¹ McPhail attended Oberlin College in Ohio, where he “took a vigorous part in the anti-slavery agitation, and especially in the ‘underground railway.’”²

McPhail pursued a career back in Boston after completing his education in Ohio. He initially worked as a bookkeeper for Lemuel Gilbert, piano manufacturer and brother of Timothy Gilbert. After being an apprentice of Gilbert, McPhail successfully opened his own piano manufacturing business.³

In 1850, following the passage of a new Fugitive Slave Law, McPhail continued to support the anti-slavery cause. He joined the third and final iteration of the Boston Vigilance Committee, an organization that aided those escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad.⁴ However, his specific contributions to the organization remain unknown. 

In addition to his abolitionist work, McPhail also became involved in state politics. During the 1860s, McPhail served in both houses of the Massachusetts State Legislature. He became a close friend of Senator Charles Sumner. He also continued to support emancipation efforts as an officer of a local organization called the Emancipation League.⁵

McPhail Jr. lived in Boston until the death of his wife, Hannah Wallingford. He then moved to Omaha, Nebraska to live with his daughter in 1891. McPhail died at age 85 in 1902 in Omaha, but his remains are interred in Cambridge, Massachusetts at Mount Auburn Cemetery.⁶

If you are a researcher or descendant of Andrew M. McPhail Jr. and can provide any further information on his work with the Boston Vigilance Committee or the larger Underground Railroad network, please e-mail us.

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Footnotes

1. “Andrew Malcolm McPhail,” Omaha Daily Bee, October 12, 1902, 5; Boston Evening Transcript, October 17, 1902, 12.
2. “Andrew Malcolm McPhail,” Omaha Daily Bee, October 12, 1902, 5.
3. “Andrew Malcolm McPhail,” Omaha Daily Bee, October 12, 1902, 5; Boston Evening Transcript, October 17, 1902, 12; Musical Courier, April 2, 1890, 308-309. 
4. Austin Bearse, Reminiscences of Fugitive Slave Law Days in Boston, (Boston: Warren Richardson, 1880), 4.
5. The Commonwealth, May 27, 1864, 2; The Liberator, May 27, 1864, 2; “Andrew Malcolm McPhail,” Omaha Daily Bee, October 12, 1902, 5; Reunion of the Free Soilers of 1848-1852, (Cambridge: John Wilson and Son, 1888), Reunion of the Free soilers of 1848-1852, at the Parker House, Boston, Massachusetts, June 28, 1888 : Free Soil Party (Mass.) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive, 80; Springfield Weekly Republican, November 2, 1867, 5. 
6. “Andrew Malcolm McPhail,” Omaha Daily Bee, October 12, 1902, 5; Boston Evening Transcript, October 17, 1902, 12.