232 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY.
MAIN EVENTS IN HIS LIFE.
William McKinley was born at Niles,
Trumbull County,
Ohio, and was descended from Scotch and
Irish ancestry. James
and William McKinley, the heads of the
two branches of the
McKinley family in this country, one in
the Southern, the other
in the Northern States, came from the
north of Ireland. James
was the father of David McKinley, the
great-grandfather of
the late President.
James McKinley settled in York County,
Pennsylvania. His
son, David McKinley, served with honor
in the Colonial army in
the Revolutionary War. David's second
son, James, married
Mary Rose. The Roses were of English
extraction. To James
and Mary Rose McKinley were born twelve
children, of whom
William McKinley, the father of the
President, was the second
child. He was born November 15, 1807, in
Mercer County,
Pennsylvania. He moved to Canton, Ohio,
and when he was
twenty-two years of age he was married
to Nancy Allison, by
whom he had nine children, the late
President being the seventh
child.
At the time of President McKinley's
birth, his father was
managing an iron furnace at Niles, Ohio.
Later the family re-
moved to Poland, Ohio, where William
McKinley, Jr., attended
the public school and the academy, an
institution of advanced
grade for that period. He applied
himself to his studies with
such diligence and success that at the
age of seventeen he taught
a term of school in what was then known
as the Kerr District. The
funds he acquired by teaching he
expended for further tuition
for himself and other members of the
family in the Poland
Academy. He was hardly sixteen years of
age when he united
with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He
at once took up the
duties of a Christian life and faithfully filled them to the end.
At
the age of seventeen he entered the
Allegheny College, but his
health becoming impaired, he shortly
returned to Poland.