Perhaps the strangest emotion during the preparation of this shaft and its unveiling was caused by the seeming lack of knowledge of this statesman, farmer, frontiersman, soldier, surveyor, citizen, who was an officer in the Continental Army during the Revolution, who was a foremost actor in the actual development of the interior of the State to commerce, one who sat in the highest legislative councils of this Commonwealth and presided over its Senate, who represented his State in Congress and later in the United States Senate, and so serving was the compeer of men whose names are radiant with luster on the pages of American history. Yet, strange to say, the memory of this man had so completely faded from public view that college professors, members of the General Assembly and men who held some claim to be styled historians asked in wonder, when the bill was before the Legislature, “Who was this man?” The ancestors of Senator Maclay came from Scotland, where the clan Maclay inhabited the mountains of County Boss in the northlands. When the darkest chapter of Scotch-Irish history was written in tears and blood, emigration was the only alternative to starvation, and among the 30,000 exiles who left for these shores were two Maclays. These two exiles were sons of Charles Maclay, of County Antrim and titular Baron of Finga. Their names were Charles, born in 1703, and John, born in 1707. They set sail for America May 30, 1734. Upon arrival they first settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where they remained nearly seven years, when they removed to what is now Lurgan Township, Franklin County, on an estate, which is still in possession of their descendants. Here John, son of Charles, the immigrant, built a mill in 1755, which, with modern improvements and alterations, is still operated by the third succeeding generation. This mill was stockaded during the French and Indian War, as it was located on the well-traveled highway leading from McAllister’s Gap to Shippensburg. During the Revolution every male member of the Maclay family, of military age, was in the service, and every one an officer. John Maclay, the younger of the immigrant brothers, married Jane MacDonald in 1747. To this union were born three sons and one daughter; John born 1748, a soldier of the Revolution, died 1800; Charles, born 1750, a captain in the Continental Army, who fell in the action at Crooked Billet, 1778; Samuel, born 1751, also an officer, fell at Bunker Hill; Elizabeth, wife of Colonel Samuel Culbertson, of the Revolution.