only eight miles away, and Senator Quay's home
at Beaver is only sixty miles off. Rutherford B.
Hayes was a native of Delaware County, near by, f

and Senator Sherman and General William T. Sherman were born and reared at Lancaster, O., less than a hundred miles away.

Several of Mr. McKinley's brothers and sisters died in infancy. His oldest brother, David, is a resident of San Francisco, where he discharges the duty of Hawaiian Consul to the United States. James, the next older brother, died about 1890. Abner, a younger brother, is engaged in business in New York. William McKinley entered the village school in Poland, to which his family had removed, when only five years old. He remained in the schools of that town until in his seventeenth year, when he made enough money by teaching in a near by district public school to pay his matriculation fees in Allegheny College.

He remained at the college only a few weeks when the call to arms for the Civil War came, and LA the pale-faced, grey-eyed, earnest and patriotic young student flung aside his books and decided to Wan shoulder a musket for the preservation of the Union. This step was taken only after earnest conference with his parents. Owing to his youth and physical immaturity they were loath to consent to interruption of his studies and the incident exposure to the hardships of campaigning.

But the enthusiastic patriotism of the youth kindled like emotion in the Scotch-Irish blood of his parents and bore down their opposition, for they saw that in spite of his youth there was plenty of fighting stuff in him. And so his education in books ended, and that broader education of stirring events and the ways of men began.

A Private in the Ranks.

Young McKinley entered the Union army a mere stripling, without influence or powerful friends, with only a heart brimful of patriotism and love for his flag. He joined a company of volunteers from his own neighborhood, which, after the fashion of the time, took the pretentious name of "The Poland Guards." The company had already selected its officers. The captain, a youth named Zimmerman, was chosen because of brief service in a Pennsylvania militia company, in which he had learned the facings and a few other rudiments of the school of the soldier. He was the only man in the company who had any military training whatever.

Another young fellow named Race was first lieutenant, and J. L. Botsford, second lieutenant. This company was mustered into the volunteer service at Columbus by General John C. Fremont in June, 1861, and was attached to the Twentythird Ohio Volunteer Infantry, of which William

S. Rosecranz was colonel and Rutherford B. Hayes major.

The regiment saw service first in General George B. McClellan's campaign in the Kanawha, which wrested West Virginia from the parent State and added another star to the sisterhood of States. It was a campaign of few battles, hard marches and plenty of experience in the hardships of soldiering. Of the fourteen months which McKinley served in the ranks he recently said: "I always look back with pleasure on those fourteen months of soldiering. They taught me a great deal. I was only a school-boy when I entered the ranks, and that year was the formative period of my life, during which I learned much of men and affairs. I have always been glad that I entered the service as a private."

Promotion came to him after Antietam. During that battle he was acting commissary for his company, and in the heat of the fight he took cooked rations to the front to feed his hungry comrades who had been in battle line for twentyfour hours. The fighters fell back in squads to refresh themselves, and were loud in praises of McKinley's thoughtfulness. He obtained furlough a few days after the battle.

On his way home he passed through Columbus and paid his respects to Governor Tod, who surprised the young volunteer by presenting him with a

second lieutenant's commission. General Hayes, who had been wounded at the battle, was home and recommended the promotion. This was September 24, 1862. February 7, 1863, he was promoted to first lieutenant, and on July 25, 1864, captain. This latter promotion was supplemented by his appointment as adjutant-general of his brigade, and he remained upon the staff until mustered out in July, 1865.

It was as assistant adjutant-general that he went through Sheridan's famous campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley. While on his way to Winchester Sheridan found young McKinley, then only 20 years old, rallying the panic-stricken troops at Cedar Creek, and at Berryville the young officer's horse was killed under him. "For gallant and meritorious services at the battle of the Opiquan, Cedar Creek and Fisher's Hill," reads his commission as brevet-major, and it is signed "A. Lincoln."

Thus William McKinley, at a time of his life when most young men are at school or preparing for professional life, had experience in over four years of active warfare and had contributed as many years of his life to active military service of his country as any veteran of the Civil War. This is one of the potent holds he has upon the young men of the country who have steadily held him in view as a paragon of youthful courage and patriotism.