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President McKinley’s grandma gets new headstone
By JORDAN COHEN
NILES
Members of the Niles Historical Society commemorated the life of Anne Campbell Allison, maternal grandmother of Niles native President William McKinley, with the presentation of a new headstone at the city cemetery.
“We owe her this debt,” said Mary Ann Creator of the Lisbon Historical Society of the woman who died in 1846 at age 72. Allison had lived in Lisbon before moving with her family to Niles in 1838.
“The [future] president was only 3 years old when his grandmother died,” Creator said at Friday’s ceremony.
According to Audrey John, curator of the Ward Thomas Museum in Niles, the years took their toll on Allison’s stone, which was buried in the sod and deteriorated to the point that it was unreadable. “We were able to determine that it was her headstone in 2002,” John said, “but we didn’t have the money to replace it.”
John said an anonymous donor provided $600 to purchase the new headstone, and Warren Marble and Granite engraved it.
Historical records show the grandmother of the future president was born in 1774 and at 15 married Abner Allison, a veteran of the War of 1812. The family moved from Pennsylvania to what is now Columbiana County in 1809.
Allison’s husband died in 1827, and he is buried in the Jordanville Cemetery near Lisbon. The couple had eight children.
“She probably lived a simple life,” Creator said during the ceremony. Records indicated the family lived in a log cabin near Lisbon.
Creator said the widow moved with the rest of the family to Niles, where her family was involved in iron manufacturing. Nancy, one of Allison’s daughters, and William McKinley Sr. were the parents of the 25th president, who was born in Niles in 1843.
Allison’s new stone is set next to the gravestone of McKinley’s infant sister, who died at age 7 months in January 1846, 10 months before Allison’s death.
The grandmother’s previous headstone has been moved to the McKinley replica home on North Main Street in Niles where it has been placed on display.
During the observance, Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, dressed in a Scottish kilt, played “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes. More than 20 people turned out to watch the ceremony at the cemetery despite the 90-degree temperatures.