Full Name:
- William McKinley, Jr.
Birth Date:
- January 29, 1843
Birth Location:
- Niles, Ohio
Parents:
- William McKinley, Sr. and Nancy (Allison) McKinley
Education:
- Allegheny College (DNG))
Occupation:
- Politician
- Military officer
- Lawyer
Career Summary:
- Captain (USVA)
- Brevet Major (USVA)
- U.S. Congressman
- Governor of Ohio
- Twenty-fifth President of the United States
Spouse:
- Ida Saxton (1871)
Nickname(s):
- Idol of Ohio
- The Major
Place of Death:
- Buffalo, New York
Date of Death:
- September 14, 1901
Place of Burial:
- McKinley National Memorial, Canton, Ohio
Significance:
- William McKinley was the seventh of nine children of William McKinley, Sr. and Nancy (Allison) McKinley.
- William McKinley moved with his family to Poland, Ohio in 1853 when he was ten years of age.
- As a youth, William McKinley attended Poland Seminary.
- William McKinley briefly attended Allegheny College, but did not graduate.
- When the American Civil War began, William McKinley enlisted as a private in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, serving under future U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes.
- William McKinley spent the first year of the Civil War in western Virginia fighting small Confederate units and he was promoted to sergeant.
- On September 24, 1862, William McKinley’s commanding officer, Rutherford B. Hayes, Hayes promoted McKinley to second lieutenant, for bravery during the Battle of Antietam.
- William McKinley was promoted to captain on July 25, 1864.
- William McKinley was on General George Crook’s staff at the battles of Opequan, Fisher’s Hill, and Cedar Creek during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign.
- William McKinley was brevetted major of volunteers on March 14, 1865, for gallant and meritorious service.
- William McKinley mustered out of the army on July 26, 1865.
- After the Civil War, William McKinley attended Albany Law School in Albany New York.
- William McKinley was admitted to the bar in Warren, Ohio, in March 1867.
- William McKinley practiced law in Canton, Ohio, from 1869 to 1871.
- William McKinley was elected as Stark County’s prosecuting attorney in 1869.
- William McKinley met Ida Saxton in 1869 and the couple married in 1871.
- McKinley became an active member of the Republican Party, who campaigned for fellow Ohioans, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and James A. Garfield throughout their political careers.
- William McKinley represented Ohio’s 18th Congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1877 to 1882 and from 1885 to 1891.
- Congressman McKinley was the Republican Party’s leading spokesman for protectionism in foreign trade. His McKinley Tariff of 1890 established substantially higher tariff rates on imported goods to protect U.S. business and manufacturing.
- William McKinley was elected to two terms as Governor of Ohio, in 1891 and again in 1893.
- William McKinley served as president of the National Republican Convention in 1892.
- Delegates to the National Republican Convention in St. Louis nominated William McKinley as their candidate for President of the United States in 1896.
- William McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the presidential election of 1896.
- William McKinley was inaugurated as president on March 4, 1897.
- William McKinley was the last Civil War veteran to be elected President of the United States.
- During William McKinley’s first term as president, the United States annexed the Republic of Hawaii, assumed control of Puerto Rico the Philippines, and Guam, and installed a military government in Cuba, as a result of victory over Spain in the Spanish-American War in 1898.
- William McKinley supported equal rights for black Americans, but he was unwilling to use the power of the Federal government to check the growing proliferation of Jim Crow laws in the South and the general expansion of segregationist policies nationwide..
- On June 19, 1900, delegates to the National Republican Convention in Philadelphia unanimously nominated William McKinley as their candidate for President of the United States.
- William McKinley easily defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan for re-election to the presidency in 1900.
- At 4:07 p.m. on September 6, 1901, self-professed anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot President McKinley twice at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
- At 2:15 a.m. on September 14, 1901, President McKinley died from gangrene that resulted from being shot twice eight days earlier.
- William McKinley’s funeral was held at the Milburn Mansion in Buffalo, New York.
- William McKinley’s body lay in state at the Buffalo City hall for public morning.
- William McKinley’s body was taken to the White House and then the U.S. Capitol before being transported to Canton, Ohio for burial.
- William McKinley was originally buried at West Lawn Cemetery in Canton, Ohio.
- William McKinley’s remains were re-interred in the McKinley Memorial in Canton, Ohio in 1907.