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branch that William B. Allison sprung, for he was born in Ohio, in a portion of the State not far from New Lisbon.

It is noticeable that the McKinleys and the families into which they married were all industrious, hard-working people, religiously inclined, patriots and pioneers-a hardy race that baffled with difficulty and helped in carving a civilization out of a wilderness. The McKinley-Rose-Allison families were all Pennsylvanians originally, and a people with a trend toward the iron business. The Roses were iron founders, so was McKinley's father, while his mother's people were farmers. The combination of tillers of the soil and molders of the ore was a good one, and added much to the strength of character and the industrious application that is so characteristic of Major McKinley.

Mr. and Mrs. William McKinley, Sr., settled first at Fairfield, Ohio, another small town. There, in Columbiana County, which is now a part of the Eighteenth Ohio District, which his son represented for fourteen years in Congress, the father established an iron foundry, and for two decades he had interests in iron furnaces in New Wilmington, Ohio. It is interesting to observe that McKinley's ancestry makes it possible to trace his character. The lines of activity pursued by his forefathers were such as to leave their impress upon their offspring, and much as Major McKinley owes to his own energy and labor, the tendency to study, to activity, and to

continued effort was inherited. He had opportu nities for application, and to his credit be it said he did not neglect them. He had openings and chances broader and better than his ancestors, and took advantage of them. It is seen from this short reference to his ancestry that Major McKinley was one of the people born in plain, respectable, and religious surroundings. He did not have the advantages nor the embarrassments of a great name, but proceeded by his own effort, by his own continuity of purpose, by study and energy, to make his name great.

William McKinley had a good mother. That she is now living, strong and well, with as active an intellect as ever at eighty-seven, is one of his great joys. Vigorous and energetic and strong as his father was, William McKinley, Jr., had the benefit of a mother's training, of her love and devotion, of her gentle guidance, of her religious instruction. Mrs. McKinley, as most mothers of large families, was enabled to do more for her children because they were numerous than had she but one or

The danger of being spoiled was obviated, and the association with brothers and sisters naturally produced a thoughtfulness for others, a regard for different opinions, and at the same time helped develop an ability to care for himself, since in a family of many members, no matter how harmonious and loving it be, there is always a struggle for supremacy, particularly when there is an inheritance of aggressiveness.

William McKinley's mother is a Christian woman. She loved her country ways, and trained her son to patriotic views, and willingly offered him for sacrifice when she consented to his entering the army to help put down the rebellion when he was not yet eighteen years old. She has pride in his abilities and worldwide reputation, and is undoubtedly rejoiced that he has been named for the greatest and most exalted office in the world. But such a mother as McKinley has would count this honor as nothing, would be unhappy, if it had been secured unworthily. Truly Mrs. McKinley's greatest happiness lies in the fact that her son is an honorable man and respected even by his enemies, because his life has been free from stain. That good old mother lives in Canton now, happy in her son's preferment, and sad only because her good husband was taken away three years ago, before he could see his son the Presidential candidate of his party.

The family moved to Poland from Niles when William McKinley was still young. The mother desired her children to have educational advantages, and there was in Poland, Ohio, an academy which in those days had a wide reputation for the abilities of its teachers. There Major McKinley's sister, Annie, became a teacher and William a scholar. The young boy made friends always by his quiet dignity and serious habits-a student always, but withal a manly fellow, who could play as hard as he studied. The McKinley family was held in high esteem in Po

land, and to this day it is remembered with affection and pleasure. The testimony of old friends, the stories of childhood, are always true indications of the character of a young man, and of McKinley there is nothing in criticism said. Everybody liked him as a boy, and, of course, bright and thorough in his work as he was, there were prophecies that he would make a great man. That often happens with likeable children, but, alas! it too seldom is verified by the future.

The town of Poland was an agricultural and mining village, only eight miles from Youngstown, and consequently near the Pennsylvania State line, a city in the now prosperous and fertile Mahoning Valley, which is as famous in Ohio as the Connecticut Valley is in New England. Poland never grew much. It was too near Youngstown, but the citizens of the town are proud that small as it is, the draft was never enforced there, for the men volunteered from patriotic motives. In fact there were always more volunteers than Poland's quota justified.

A boy, while studying in the public schools, the educational advantages he gained made him one of their best friends and advocates. To him the magnificent school system of Ohio is a matter of pride In the days of McKinley's youth men and boys often did chores to help the family along, and that was what McKinley himself did. McKinley was a clerk in the Poland post-office when he entered the war. He was studying and working at the same

time. One had a feeling of pride in the advancement of a young man who struggled for his education. So many have been educated without having to work to pay for it, and have not properly regarded the educational advantages, that there is a tingle of satisfaction in seeing a man succeed who earned his education literally by the sweat of his brow.

In June, 1861, two months after the surrender of Fort Sumter, when McKinley was a youth not yet eighteen, there was a meeting at the tavern in Poland. In a small town the hotel is a meeting place, just as a store is in a village. Here the citizens had assembled, thirty-five years ago, to discuss the secession of States. A speaker in a fiery talk asked who would be first to defend the flag. The boys of Poland came forward, one by one, and among them was our next President, a slight, pale-faced young man, of studious mien. Two years before he had joined the Methodist church, and was a member of the Bible-class, who was constantly seeking information. Before the war, at seventeen, he had gone to Allegheny College, but an illness called him home. He did not return, but took to teaching school-a youth instructing scholars at a country school, some of them as old as he.

McKinley at that meeting enlisted in Company E of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteers, a regiment that produced such men as Stanley Matthews, afterward Senator and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; President Hayes, and of which W. S. Rose

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