WILLIAM McKINLEY
McKINLEY, WILLIAM, soldier, lawyer, statesman, twenty-fifth president of the United States, was born at Niles, Ohio, on January 29, 1843, son of William and Nancy Campbell (Allison) McKinley. He was the seventh of a family of nine children, and came of sturdy Scotch-Irish ancestors who originally settled in Pennsylvania. Of their descendants several including his great-grandfather, served as Revolutionary soldiers. His father was a native of Pennsylvania, but with other pioneers removed to Ohio, where he became a well-known ironmaster, and continued to reside until his death.
The education of the future president was begun in the common schools, continued at a local seminary, and, as far as schools shaped it, was finished with a partial course in Allegheny college, at Meadville, Pennsylvania. A short experience as a schoolmaster followed, then an equally short experience as a postoffice clerk, when, as a boy of eighteen, he entered the ranks of the 23d Ohio volunteer regiment for service in the Civil war, of which another future president, Rutherford B. Hayes, was major. From that day until his regiment was mustered out, a period of more than four years, he was never absent a day on sick leave, and only once on a short furlough. He took part in every engagement in which the regiment participated, always with honor, more than once with notable gallantry, and rose by steady promotion from private to major.
After the war he had a natural inclination to remain in the army, but in deference to the wishes of his father and others, he abandoned it and turned to the study of law in Canton, Ohio, which place thereafter became his home. He was admitted to the bar, in 1867, and for several years he devoted himself to that profession with single-minded energy. From the time of his boyhood, however, he had been an ardent Republican, and politics soon claimed a large part of his life. He was elected (for one term) prosecuting attorney in
