LIFE OF WILLIAM MCKINLEY.

BIRTH AND EDUCATION.

THE McKinley family, to which our illustrious subject belongs, was originally from the west of Scotland, but eventually found its way to the north of Ireland, as part of that important migration which afterwards became so conspicuously known both in Europe and this country as Scotch-Irish.

Two branches of the McKinley family migrated to America about the beginning of the last century. One branch settled in the South, and became founder of a long line of prominent and influential citizens. The other branch settled in the North, and presumably in York county, Pa.; at least one James McKinley, who was but twelve years old when his father came to this country, was a resident of York in 1755, where a son was born to him, whom he named David McKinley.

This David McKinley served as a private in the Revolutionary war, and was engaged in several important battles. After the war he moved to Westmoreland county, Pa., then to Mercer county, Pa., then to Columbiana county, Ohio, and finally to Crawford county, where he died. He married twice, the first time in 1780 to Sarah Gray, and the second to Eleanor McClean. He had no children by his second wife, but by his first he had

four sons and several daughters, all of whom were born in Pennsylvania, in Westmoreland or Mercer counties. He died, August 8, 1840, in Crawford county, Ohio.

His second son, James McKinley, and great-grandfather of our subject, was born September 19, 1783, and resided in Mercer county, Pa., where he married Mary Rose, who was of English extraction. Her father was an iron founder, and he, too, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. James McKinley moved to New Lisbon, Ohio, in 1809, taking along with him his son, William McKinley, then but a year and a-half old, and born November 15, 1807. There were born to James McKinley, thirteen children, eleven of whom were born in New Lisbon. The oldest son was the above mentioned William McKinley, father of our subject.

He early became associated with the iron business, and erected, both for himself and in association with others, several foundries and furnaces in Ohio, moving in pursuit of his business from New Lisbon to Niles, thence to Poland, and thence to Canton, where he died in 1892. He married Nancy Campbell Allison, in 1827. She was a descendant of an English family, that had first settled in Virginia, then moved to Greene county, Pa., and finally to New Lisbon.

From this union sprang William McKinley, the subject of our biography, distinguished alike for his high place in American political history, and as the recipient of an homage accorded to but few statesmen. He was born at Niles, Trumbull county, Ohio, January 29, 1843. His father was then a resident of Niles, and manager of an iron furnace there. While the younger William and his sisters were mere children, the father and mother moved to Poland, in Mahoming county, a village in the centre of

a flourishing agricultural and mining section. This move was made both for business and educational reasons, the place being somewhat noted for its academy.

In this busy but unostentatious village, the younger McKinley began his school career. It was at first the usual tame submission to the routine of the public schools, and then a loftier and pleasanter walk in the portals of the academy. The pupil was ever obedient and progressive. He labored hard during the school sessions to improve his opportunities, and during vacations he did not hesitate to follow the custom of the times by earning pocket and book money on his own account. As he progressed with his studies, he filled in his leisure with odd clerical jobs, and taught a term of public school in a district contiguous to Poland, thus contributing materially to the expense of his academic education, as well as to the development of his intellectual organization and powers of self-control.

As a boy and pupil, young McKinley gave evidence of many of those qualities which in their maturity characterized his public life. His industry and perseverance were earnests of that assiduity and persistency which afterwards enabled him to meet and conquer the hard problems of legislation and statescraft. His youthful love of fun, exercise and athletics gave assurance of sturdy physical power, equal to the hardest strains of the battlefield or the severest exactions of the political campaign or committee room. In his youthful candor and generosity of spirit, were the germs of that social elegance and pleasing political address admired as much by those who opposed as those who favored his views. In his boyish democracy were the seeds of that philanthropy which would bring the beneficences of economic legislation down to

the looms and the furnace hearths, and into the domestic lives of the boiling masses. In the brightness and acquisitiveness of his youthful intellect, we see that future mastery of our industrial status, and that successful application of remedial laws which have borne such relishable fruits and have left him without a peer in popular affection. In that young faithfulness to family, in home obedience, in all that reflected noble mother's assiduous training, have been found an exalted moral life, exalted integrity of purpose, severe adherence to the code of honor that regulate our business and political estates. In short, the boyish and educational estate of William McKinley presaged the coming man with far greater accuracy than is common, even with those who have the greatest reason to appreciate the stern lessons of early years.

He left the Academy at Poland when seventeen years of age, and entered Allegheny College. But his career here was brief, owing to sickness. On his return to Poland he again taught public school for a time, and also Bible class in his Sunday school, he being then a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

ARMY CAREER.

A youth of McKinley's patriotism could not, of course, resist the high call to duty which came with the breaking Dat of the Civil war. Burning with desire to aid the cause of the Union, forgetting his unripe years and the acrifices that one so young would have to make, he joined the band of companions that went out from Poland early in the war-June 11, 1861-and that afterwards became Company E, of the 23d Ohio Volunteers. He bore no commission, was honored by no title, but