Born with a naturally adventurous spirit, Isaac temporarily left his wife and young sons in Missouri to explore the American west – specifically the Pacific Coast.

While with the service, Ebey spent some time in Olympia, the city he is credited with naming in honor of the Olympic Peninsula mountains to the west of Puget Sound.

Like other American farmers of European descent on Whidbey Island, Ebey grew wheat and potatoes, as well as onions, carrots, cabbages, parsnips, peas, barley and other grains.

[6][7] Taking advantage of the natural landing at his property on the shores of Admiralty Inlet he built a dock for the commercial ship traffic on Puget Sound in order to facilitate trade from Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula.

Living some distance from the other Euro-American farmers, she stayed close to home managing the household during Isaac's long absences.

In 1857, a party of northern (possibly Haida) natives from the Kake Tribe of Alaska traveled by canoe into Puget Sound on a mission of vengeance.

[8] Originally, the intended victim was Dr. John Coe Kellogg, who lived near the present day Admiralty Head lighthouse.

[4] Emily and the children fled to Jacob Ebey's blockhouse on the ridge, and George and Lucretia Corliss (in-laws of Phoebe Judson) escaped into the forest.

Traditional stories of the Keex' Kwáan (Kake) tribe of Tlingits tell of the raid being led by a female relative of the slain chief in the Massachusetts attack.

[9][10] In fact, the Puget Sound Herald of Steilacoom published an article fifteen months after Ebey's assassination stating the Kake and Stikine nations, "numbering a couple hundred," were responsible for the "cold blooded murder."

[12] Captains Swanston and Charles Dodd of the Hudson's Bay Company steamer Beaver attempted to purchase Ebey's scalp about a year after his death, but were unsuccessful when the Kake Nation took the request as a first step in an attack of their village.

[11] About three years after Ebey's murder, Captain Dodd now on the steamer Labouchere again attempted to purchase the scalp of his slain friend, and was successful.

[13] Dodd acquired the scalp for a liberal reward of "six blankets, 3 pipes, 1 cotton handkerchief, 6 heads of tobacco, 1 fthm.

On April 5, 1860, Winfield Ebey noted in his diary the much awaited return of his brother's "poor head":[12] Captain Coupe got over from Port Townsend bringing my friend A. M. Poe, Esquire.

It is a sad memento of the past.While some historians insist Winfield—a prolific diarist—had the scalp buried with his brother's body, no record of this claim exists.

Ebey's Landing, while no longer a docking port, is named for the beachfront located just below the still-standing Ferry House built in 1860.

External views of the Ferry House and the surrounding Ebey's Prairie can be seen in scenes from the 1999 movie Snow Falling On Cedars, depicting the homestead of fictional German immigrant, Carl Heine, Sr.