M. KIXLHV. WILLIAM. 



429 



in 1807, married in 1829 Nancy Campbell Allison, 

 of Columbians County, Ohio, \vho>e father. Aimer 

 Allison, was of English extraction, and her mother, 

 Ann Campbell, of Scotch-German. The union was 

 blessed with nine children, of whom four are now 

 living. William being the >cventh child. Both the 

 grandfather and the father of the President were 

 iron manufacturers, or furnace men. His father was 

 identified with that business all his active life, su- 

 perintending both the erection and operation of 

 furnaces, and gaining thereby a fair competency. 

 At an early age he became manager of a furnace 

 near New Wilmington. Lawrence County. PH., and 

 filled the place for twenty-one years. During this 

 extended period he drove every Saturday to his 

 home in Poland. Ohio, and returned on Monday to 

 his duties at the furnace. He was a devout Meth- 

 odist, a staunch Whig and Republican, and an ar- 

 dent advocate of a protective tariff. He was a man 

 of strong common sense, intelligence, probity, and 

 force of character; industrious, temperate, frugal, 

 successful respected and esteemed wherever known. 

 He lived to see his son and namesake rise to a post 

 of national prominence as chairman of the Ways 

 and Means Committee in the popular branch of 

 Congress, and to hear his name heralded around 

 the globe either in terms of endearment or execra- 

 tion, but died during William's first term as Gov- 

 ernor of Ohio, in November, 1892. The mother of 

 the President. Mrs. Nancy Allison McKinley, com- 

 monly and lovingly known as " Mother McKinley,'' 

 is still living at the age of eighty-eight. It may "be 

 observed of them, as Mr. Winthrop said of Washing- 

 ton and his widowed mother : " Few sons ever had a 

 more lovely and devoted mother, and no mother a 

 more dutiful or affectionate son." She declares 

 with tender pride, "William was always a good 

 boy." while he ascribes to mother and home those 

 traits and habits which have made him the model 

 of the American household. 



William received his first education in the public 

 schools of Niles, but when he was nine years old the 

 family removed to Poland, Mahoning County, Ohio, 

 a village noted for its educational facilities, where 

 he was at once admitted into Union Seminary and 

 pursued his studies until he was seventeen. He 

 excelled in mathematics and the languages, and 

 was the best equipped of all the students in debat- 

 ing the exciting public questions of the day. in 

 which he was encouraged by his preceptors. In 

 1860 he was sent to Allegheny College, Meadville, 

 Pa., where he was easily admitted to the junior 

 . and would have been graduated in the follow- 

 ing year but for the failure of his health. Intense 

 application to his studies had so weakened his sys- 

 tem that he was obliged to return home for rest and 

 recuperation, but even then he did not escape severe 

 illness. As soon as he was able, he sought a change 

 by engaging as a teacher in the public schools, and 

 for a term or two he taught in the Kerr district, 

 near Poland. A friend says of him at this time : 

 " He was always studying, studying studying all 

 the time." He was fond of athletic sports, and was 

 a good horseman. At the age of sixteen he became 

 a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Po- 

 land, and was noted for his diligent study of the 

 Bible and his interest in the discussions that took 

 place in the Bible class. When the civil war broke 

 out, in the spring of 1861, he was a clerk in the Po- 

 land post office. Here, in the Sparrow tavern, a war 

 meeting was held, and the principal speaker closed 

 his address with this appeal: " Our country's flag 

 has been shot at. It has been trailed in the dust 

 by those who should defend it, dishonored by those 

 who should have cherished and loved it. And for 

 what? That this free Government may keep a 

 race in the bondage of slavery. Who will be the 



first to defend it?" " Pr- -ays one writer. 



pace was cleared in front of the elcujui-nt 

 speaker. One by one some of the choicest of the 

 young men of Poland Mepped forward. Among them 

 was a slight, gray-eyed, boyish figure, too much im- 

 pre.-r-ed with the serinu>ne>s of the situation to put 

 himself in evidence, who went up with the rot." 

 This was William McKinley. He went with the 

 recruits to Columbus, and was there cnli-ted 

 private in Company E of the Twenty-third Ohio 

 Volunteer Infantry. June 11,1861. This regiment 

 is one of the most famous in the history of the Ohio 

 organizations. It numbered among its field and 

 staff such officers and civilians as Gen. William S. 

 Kosecrans, Gen. E. Parker Scammon, Gen. Ruther- 

 ford B. Hayes, nineteenth President of the United 

 States, Gen. James M. Comly, minister to Ha- 

 waii. Col. Stanley Matthews. United States Senator 

 and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Gen. 

 Russell Hastings, Dr. Joseph T. Webb, a noted sur- 

 geon, Robert P. Kennedy and William C. Lyon, 

 Lieutenant Governors of Ohio, and several other 

 State officers and congressmen. From the date of 

 its organization, June 1, 1861, to the time it was 

 mustered out at Cumberland. Md., July 26, 1805. 

 its rank and file included 2.095 men, of whom 169 

 were killed in battle and 107 died of wounds and 

 disease. It is estimated (in 1897) that about 500 of 

 its members are still living. It was engaged in 19 

 battles, inarched hundreds of miles, endured great 

 privation, and encountered all the perils and hard- 

 ships of war with a bravery and fidelity, which, 

 while perhaps not exceptional, did it great credit 

 and honor. Its career, like that possibly of no other 

 Ohio regiment, verifies the words of President Lin- 

 coln in his first message to Congress in speaking of 

 the high character of the volunteer soldiers. 

 " There are many single regiments," said Lincoln, 

 "whose members, one and another, possess full 

 practical knowledge of all the arts, sciences, pro- 

 fessions, and whatever else, whether useful or ele- 

 gant, is known to the world ; and there is scarcely 

 one from which there could not be selected a Presi- 

 dent, a Cabinet, a Congress, and perhaps a Court 

 abundantly competent to administer the Govern- 

 ment itself." 



Young McKinley found the drill, discipline, and 

 out-of-door life of the soldier beneficial to his 

 health, and emerged from his four years' arduous 

 service stronger than when he entered the army. 

 Concerning this period of his life, he said to a visit- 

 or in the executive office at Columbus, when serv- 

 ing as Governor : " I always look back with pleasure 

 upon the fourteen months I served in the ranks. 

 They taught me a great deal. I was but a school- 

 boy when I went into the army, and that first year 

 was a formative period in my life, during which I 

 learned much of men and facts. I have always 

 been glad that I entered the service as a private 

 and served those months in that capacity." He 

 participated in all the early engagements in West 

 Virginia. The first of these was at Carnifex Ferry. 

 Sept. 10, 1861, and its effects were of much conse- 

 quence to the regiment. It gave the boys confi- 

 dence in themselves." he once said, "and faith in 

 their commander. We learned that we could fight 

 and whip the enemy on their own ground/' In 

 the winter's camp at Fayetteville he earned and re- 

 ceived his first promotion, commissary sergeant, 

 April 15, 1862. He was never a corporal and does 

 not fancy the title of " Little Corporal " or his 

 much-talked-of resemblance to Napoleon. ' Young 

 as McKinley was." said ex-President Hayes at Lake- 

 side in 1891. " we soon found that in business and 

 executive ability he was of rare capacity, of unusual 

 and surpassing capacity, for a boy of his age. 

 When battles were fought or a service to be per- 



