born in Niles, Trumbull County, Ohio, January 29, 1843. His ancestors on
the paternal side, who were Scotch-Irish, came from Scotland and located
in Pennsylvania. His great-grandfather, David McKinley, after serving in
the Revolution, resided in Pennsylvania until 1814, when he went to
Ohio, where he died in 1840, at the age of 85. The grandmother of the
President, Mary Rose, came from a Puritan family that fled from England
to Holland and emigrated to Pennsylvania with William Penn. The father
of the President, William McKinley, sr., was born in Pine Township,
Mercer County, Pa., in 1807, and married Nancy Campbell Allison, of
Columbiana County, Ohio, in 1829. Both the grandfather and father of the
President were iron manufacturers. His father was a devout Methodist,
a stanch Whig and Republican, and an ardent advocate of a protective
tariff. He died during his son's first term as governor of Ohio, in
November, 1892, at the age of 85. The mother of the President passed
away at Canton, Ohio, in December, 1897, at the advanced age of 89.
William McKinley was educated in the public schools of Niles, Union
Seminary, at Poland, Ohio, and Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pa.
Before attaining his majority taught in the public schools. At the
age of 16 became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. At the
beginning of hostilities in the War between the States Mr. McKinley,
who was a clerk in the Poland post-office, volunteered his services,
and on June 11, 1861, was enlisted as a private in the Twenty-third Ohio
Volunteer Infantry. Participated in all the early engagements in West
Virginia, and in the winter's camp at Fayetteville received his first
promotion, commissary-sergeant, on April 15, 1862. In recognition of his
services at Antietam, Sergeant McKinley was made second lieutenant, his
commission dating from September 24, 1862, and on February 7, 1863,
while at Camp Piatt, he was again promoted, receiving the rank of first
lieutenant. In the retreat near Lynchburg, Va., his regiment marched 180
miles, fighting nearly all the time, with scarcely any rest or food.