WILLIAM MCKINLEY

WILLIAM MCKINLEY
25th president
Thursday marks the 100th anniversary of President McKinley's shooting in Buffalo. He died eight days later.
Born: Jan. 29, 1843, in Niles, a son of William and Nancy Allison McKinley, who owned an iron foundry. He was the seventh of nine children.
Education: When he was 9, the family moved to Poland, looking for better schools. He enrolled in Poland Seminary School, which was private at the time. He attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., but dropped out because of illness. He entered law school in Albany, N.Y., in 1866 and started practicing in Canton the next year.
War: McKinley volunteered to serve in the Army when the Civil War broke out in 1861. He entered the war as a private and had ascended to honorary major by the war's end.
Politics: He was elected Stark County prosecutor in 1869 but lost a tight race in his 1871 re-election bid. He was elected to the U.S. House representing Ohio in 1876 and served seven terms but lost his bid for re-election in 1890. He was elected Ohio governor in 1891 and re-elected in 1893. McKinley received the 1896 Republican party nomination for president. Garret A. Hobart of New Jersey was his running mate. McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan. He beat out Bryan again when he was re-elected in 1900. Theodore Roosevelt was McKinley's vice president for his second term.
Family: McKinley married Ida Saxton in 1871. Saxton was from a Canton newspaper family. The couple had two daughters, but one died at 4 months old and the other when she was age 4.
Presidency: United States declared war on Spain in April 1898 in what became the Spanish-American War. About five months later, the U.S. and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris under which Spain gave Guam and Puerto Rico to the U.S. The U.S. also got the Philippines for $20 million from the Spaniards.
In 1900, McKinley sent U.S. troops to help Russia, Japan and Germany defeat Chinese forces in the Boxer Rebellion.
Death: McKinley was shot Sept. 6, 1901, in Buffalo, N.Y., by Leon F. Czolgosz, an anarchist, after the president delivered a speech. Czolgosz shot McKinley when he went to shake hands with him in a receiving line. Dr. Matthew D. Mann, a gynecologist, performed surgery, but the president died the morning of Sept. 14, 1901. Czolgosz was tried and convicted of murder and executed.
Memorial: From 1915 to 1917, William McKinley Memorial and Library are built on Main Street in Niles to honor the fallen president.
Source: McKinley Memorial and Discovery Channel School Web site