MCKINLEY IN POLAND

MCKINLEY IN POLAND

William McKinley Born in Niles in 1843, and the McKinley family moved to Poland when the future president was 9. The family moved so the children could attend Poland Academy, a private school.

McKinley stayed in Poland until he was 16, when he attended Allegheny College.

MCKINLEY’S CANES

Past Poland Mayor Osborne Mitchell recorded the history of the canes. He was mayor when the canes were bought by Poland Council for the Poland Historical Museum. The canes were supposedly bought at the McKinley home in Canton.

In late 1938 or early 1939, the canes were placed on display in Poland Town Hall.

Flint McCullough, a Poland resident, remembers the canes on display in the ’50s in the library in the town hall above the fire station.

When the library moved to the one-story colonial in 1965 at the current library’s location, the canes moved to village hall.

Now, on June 5, the canes will change hands and be on loan at the Poland Library.

THE CANES

Mitchell also provides background on the canes: One is mahogany, belonging to Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, a Filipino leader during the Philippine-American war. Gen. Frederick Funston, an American who served in the Philippines during the war from 1899 to 1901, brought the cane to the U.S. when he captured Aguinaldo. Funston sent the cane to McKinley as a gift.

The history of the other cane is not as clear. It supposedly came from the Royal Savage, a ship sunk in the American Revolution, but information about the ship and when it was raised does not match when McKinley was alive. Instead, McKinley Memorial Library Director Patrick Finan believes the cane could be a campaign cane from 1896 to 1900. He did not deny that the cane was made from a ship, but the information available made it unlikely that it came from the one specified.

Source: www.mckinley.lib.oh.us/McKinley/biography.htm