Who was the 25th US President?
Who was the last president to have served in the American Civil War?
Whose vice president was Teddy Roosevelt?
What president was born in Niles, Ohio?
If you read the title of the post, you might guess “President William McKinley.”
You would be correct. If you also guessed we visited the The National McKinley Birthplace Memorial in Niles, you would also be correct. Some interesting things about the Memorial and from the museum:
- one side of the Memorial is a public library; the other, the museum
- it was built with private funds and is privately owned today
- granite was specified as the building material, but they used marble instead
- the site was chosen because McKinley attended grade school in a one-room school at this location
- there are dozens of busts around; most were there because someone donated $5,000 for construction
- it was dedicated in 1917, 16 years after the president was assassinated
- the assassin was captured immediately (he hid a gun in a handkerchief and shook McKinley’s hand)
- McKinley seemed to recover, but died 8 days later from infection
- the assassin was tried, convicted, and executed within 30 days of the assassination
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- I almost expected this bust to start singing. Guess I visited Disney too often.
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- McKinley with second term running mate, Theodore Roosevelt.
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- 26th president (did not have to pay the $5,000)
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- 27th president (did not have to pay the $5,000)
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- “Our grateful country will ever protect the worker in the full and happy life he deserves.” -Secretary of Labor
Quotable Quote: “Let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not in conflict; and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war.”
Note however that he declared war on Spain after the battleship Maine was blown up in Cuba. The peace treaty granted the US control of Cuba temporarily, but permanent ownership of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine islands.