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176 - (PICTURE) WILLIAM MCKINLEY HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 177 CHAPTER X MEN OF BROAD FAME WILLIAM MCKINLEY—A CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE—DIGEST OF LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES—PERSONAL TRAITS AND INCIDENTS—MCKINLEY 'S PRESIDENTIAL HOME-COMINGS-JUSTICE DAY'S HISTORY OF THE GRAND MEMORIAL-MEMORIAL POEM BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY-ORATION BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT—DESCRIPTION BY ARCHITECT MAGONIGLETHE BUILDING OF THE MEMORIAL—DEDICATION OF THE MEMORIAL— GOVERNOR HARRIS SPEAKS—JUSTICE WILLIAM R. DAY—GEORGE H. WALLACE-DR. THOMAS C. MENDENHALL—PHILANDER C. KNOXC HARLES F. MANDERSON AND LYMAN U. HUMPHREY—JOSEPH MEDILL, FOUNDER OF THE GREATER TRIBUNE—ISAAC R. SHERWOOD—JOHN H. KLIPPART—EARLY CONGRESSMEN FROM STARK COUNTY— MATHIAS SHEPLER—DAVID A. ST ARKWEATHER AS A PUBLIC MAN—GEN. SAMUEL LA HM—JUSTICE D. K. CARTTER—BENJ AMIN F. LEITER— UNITED STATES SENATOR ATLEE PO MERENE—ROBERT P. SKINNER. Without detracting from the admiration and gratitude due to the great and good men of other states, no student of history and biography will take exception to Ohio's claim to be the mother of as many sons as any other commonwealth has given to the nation as living contributions of its patriotism, its steadfastness, its intellectual power, its judicial wisdom, its moral strength and its high earnestness of purpose. Like its material products and its material civilization, the state has put forth men and women to strive and love in countless and broad fields of endeavor, whose natures have partaken of the typical culture and poise of the East and the electrical energy and rugged vitality of the West. Of the eighty-eight counties comprising the magnificent domain of the Buckeye State none, in comparison to its population, can muster a more distinguished company than Stark, and, by universal consent, the leader in all that stands for strong, tender, able, faithful and pure manhood is the lamented William McKinley, Canton lawyer, soldier, congressman, governor, President, martyr and ideal head of an American household. Vol. I-12 178 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY WILLIAM MCKINLEY Simple and steadily progressive though it was, the life of William McKinley was so ceaselessly and smoothly active and efficient that it covered a multitude of activities without apparent effort and certainly with as little friction as is conceivable. He drew his friends from among all ranks and professions, but the cream of them all always rose to his call and attraction. He attracted none but the worthy; all that was unworthy was stilled and abashed in his presence. Fortunately for his good fame, the most distinguished of his friends have placed on record their estimates of his character, and the condensed expressions of their admiration and love for him were shed abroad at the dedication of the magnificent memorial to his nationalism and individualism, which, since 1907, has stood against the western sky like an oriental dream in an American setting. In the preparation of this, the nation's memorial to William McKinley, the association which had the work in charge has issued a fitting volume de luxe, from which the author has largely borrowed, as being the most authentic literary memorial to the man whom all delighted to honor. Following is its epitome of one of the most complete of American lives, although rudely cut off while in the prime of late middle age. A CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE Born at Niles, Trumbull County, Ohio, January 29, 1843. Became a student at the district school at Niles, 1849. Removed to Poland, Mahoning County, Ohio, 1852. Entered the Union Seminary of Poland, 1852. Joined the Methodist Episcopal Church of Poland, 1859. Entered Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, 1860. Left college on account of illness and same year taught at the Kerr District School near Poland, 1860. Assistant postmaster in Poland postoffice, 1861. Enlisted as a private in Company E of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, June 11, 1861. Promoted to commissary sergeant, April 15, 1862. Commissioned second lieutenant, September 24, 1862. Promoted to first lieutenant, February 7, 1863. Promoted to captain of Company G, July 25, 1864. First vote for President cast, while on march, for Abraham Lincoln, October 11, 1864. Commissioned major by brevet in the Volunteer United States Army by President Lincoln, March 13, 1865. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 179 Mustered out of army, July 26, 1865. Entered the Albany Law School, 1866. Admitted to the bar at Warren, Ohio, in March, 1867. Elected prosecuting attorney of Stark County, Ohio, 1869. Married, January 25, 1871. Elected to Congress, 1876. Re-elected to Congress, 1878, 1880, 1882, 1884, 1886, 1888. Delegate-at-large, Chicago convention, 1888. Defeated for Congress, 1890. Elected governor of Ohio, November 3, 1891. Delegate to Minneapolis convention, 1892. Re-elected governor of Ohio, 1893. Nominated for President, June 18, 1896. Elected President, November 3, 1896. Inaugurated President, March 4, 1897. Renominated President, June 21, 1900. Re-elected President, November 6, 1900. Second inauguration, March 4, 1901. Assassinated September 6, 1901. Died at the home of John G. Milburn, Buffalo, New York, at 2 :15 A. M., September 14, 1901. DIGEST OF LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES This writing is for the purpose of giving briefly a review of such notable public events in the life of William McKinley, twenty-fifth President of the United States, as have in the largest degree affected the welfare of the nation and of the American people. Able historians will teach all coming generations of the works of the man. Fourteen years after his death it is generally believed that his personality will be ineradicably impressed upon the history of the nation by its genuine goodness and honor. However that may be, his memory certainly is cherished at this time by the American people with singular tenderness and affectionate admiration. This may be said to be true of his countrymen as a whole and quite regardless of political divisions. William McKinley was born in the Village of Niles, in the County of Trumbull, State of Ohio, on the 29th of January, 1843. His father was William McKinley and his mother Nancy Allison McKinley. While he was but a child the family moved to Poland, a small village in Mahoning County, where the boy was sent to the village school and later to the Poland Academy, in which institution he continued as a student until his seventeenth year. He was at that time sent to Allegheny College (PICTURE) PALLBEARERS AT THE MCKINLEY FUNERAL HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 181 at Meadville, Pennsylvania, where his education was to be continued, but after remaining there a short period he was taken ill and obliged to return to his home. Upon recovery he was appointed a teacher in the district school at Poland. He served in this capacity until the breaking out of the Civil war, and on the 11th of June, 1861, he volunteered as a private in Company E of the Twenty-third Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. As a soldier he served his country continuously from that time until the close of the war, returning to his home in Poland in July, 1865, at the age of twenty-two. McKinley served as a private in the ranks a little more than ten months, was appointed commissary sergeant of his company on the 15th of April, 1862, and commissioned second lieutenant on the 24th of September of the same year. On February 7, 1863, he was appointed to the first lieutenancy, was made captain on July 25, 1864, and on March 13, 1865, was made major by brevet in the regiment in which he originally enlisted. During his military life, as this record indicates, he earned and received distinct and continuous advancement, participating in his several capacities in nineteen serious engagements. Upon Major McKinley 's return to Poland at the close of the war he decided to adopt the law as a profession, and he studied in the office of a prominent attorney for two years, after which he completed his studies in the Albany, New York, Law School. Returning to Ohio, he was admitted to the bar in 1867. After his admission to the bar he opened an office in Canton, and in 1869 was elected prosecuting attorney of the County of Stark, in which Canton is situated. In this capacity he served one term, then returned to the general practice of his profession, in which he continued until 1876, when he was elected to represent the Eighteenth District of the State of Ohio in the National Congress, to which position he was elected successively seven times, and in which capacity he served for an unbroken period of fourteen years. At the end of this period, in 1890, through a re-arrangement of the counties composing his district, which threw Stark County into a district very strongly democratic, he was defeated for re-election, but in the following year he was unanimously chosen by his party as its candidate for governor of the State of Ohio, and was duly elected. He was elected to succeed himself in this position in 1893, serving out his four years in that capacity with such distinction as to compel the admiration of the entire nation, and in the summer of 1896 the delegates to the Republican National Convention meeting in the City of St. Louis, Missouri, to name a candidate for President of the United 182 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY States, chose him as their representative, and he was elected to that office in November of that year. On the 4th of March, 1897, he was inaugurated twenty-fifth President of the United States. A little more than a year after McKinley's inauguration as President, war was declared between the United States and the Kingdom of Spain, its representatives to this country retiring from the capital at Washington on April 23, 1898. President McKinley was supported during this conflict by both arms of the National Government, no party distinctions being drawn, and in a period of five months the Spanish belligerents were overcome. A formal treaty of peace between the two nations was entered into by the representatives of the two governments in the City of Paris, France, on December 10, 1898. In 1900 McKinley was nominated and elected to succeed himself as President of the nation, and he was again inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1901. He passed his vacation of the following summer in his old home, at Canton, Ohio. His salary during his first presidential term had enabled him to purchase and refit the house that had been occupied by him immediately after his marriage. Having never before been the possessor of a home that he could call his own, he took a lively interest in fitting the place for his permanent residence, which he had determined should commence with his retirement from office in the spring of 1905. The vacation weeks were comparatively exempt from the cares of office and were passed very quietly. It is the impression of those then nearest the President that this summer vacation spanned the happiest period of his life. He was expecting to return to Washington about the middle of September, but he had promised to be present, prior to his departure for Washington, on two occasions of a popular nature. The first was the Pan-American Exposition, at Buffalo, the second being the state encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, at Cleveland. Accompanied by Mrs. McKinley and a group of near relatives and friends, he went to Buffalo on September 4th. The people of that city and the assembled visitors received him with the warm greeting that always awaited his coming. His party became the guests of John G. Milburn, president of the exposition. On the following day he delivered a most eloquent address, an utterance that glowed with pride in the existing conditions, and expressed his unbounded confidence in the future of the country. The program of the next day, September 6th, closed with a public reception. The place chosen for the function was the Temple of Music. The President took the place assigned to him and shook hands with the HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 183 passers-by, as has been the custom of our Presidents at public receptions. In the line of approaching visitors was a man who had his right hand bound up in a handkerchief. The President put out his hand as if to shake the newcomer's left, but instead of extending his left the man raised up his bound-up right hand and fired two shots from a revolver. The second shot of the assassin, Leon Czolgosz, a Polish anarchist, was fatal. The President lingered a week, retaining his consciousness until the last. Being advised that the end was near he responded: (PICTURE) MR. AND MRS, MCKINLEY SOON AFTER THEIR MARRIAGE "Good-bye, all, good-bye. It is God's way ; His will be done, not ours." He died in the early morning of September 14, 1901. No American President had more just reason to be content with his official record than William McKinley. Nor have the people of America ever been more united in favorable appreciation of the service rendered to their country by a chief magistrate. His reluctance in yielding to the popular demand for the forcible suppression of Spanish cruelty in Cuba will be remembered. "The splendid game of war" did not allure him. His memory, seared by the horrors of the great conflict of the states, in which he had received his baptism of fire, promoted him to an heroic stand for arbitration and peace with the ancient kingdom. When once the die was east, however, he threw into the conflict the wisdom and energy of a great general trained to the nicest sense of honor, and with a sedulous care that well-nigh wrecked a constitution of marvelous virility he pursued a sleepless policy of aggression that made the dreadful struggle one of weeks. and reduced the inexorable brutalities 184 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY of war with all its terrors to the minimum. The pages of history recording the results of the war reflect the highest honor on his country and his administration. Never was the whole country so shocked as by the news of his death. Never was a President more sincerely mourned than was William McKinley. His successor, President Roosevelt, did a most gracious thing, and one that brought him much confidence and popularity, in his declaration just prior to taking his oath of office, that it would be his aim to carry out the purposes and policies of McKinley William McKinley was married to Ida Saxton, daughter of James A. and Katherine D. Saxton, in Canton, Ohio, on January 25, 1871. He was the father of two children, both of whom died in infancy. Katherine, the first child, was born on the 25th of December, 1871, and died June 25, 1875. Ida, the second child, was born on March 31, 1873, and died August 22, 1873. Ida Saxton McKinley, wife of William McKinley, died May 26, 1907. PERSONAL TRAITS AND INCIDENTS The people of nearly all the great nations of the world know in advance who is to be the successor of an existing ruler. With them the chief office is a family inheritance. In America no family is so highly favored. All that is known about the matter is that, somewhere in the United States, there is living a man, or boy, who will in due time become the head of the nation. Our Constitution says that our President must be native born ; in all other respects it allows the people to make their own free choice. In the year 1843 the Village of Niles, Ohio, was small. There were no rich, and no dependent poor. The fathers worked for a living and the mothers reared the families. Such were the modest conditions under which William McKinley made his entry into the world. He was the fourth child in a family of seven. He went to the village school with the other children, and later on by his industry helped to bear the burdens of the growing family. Who could have been found rash enough to predict, or wise enough to foresee, that this poor boy would one day be the chief magistrate of this great nation? There are not wanting many other phases in the development of McKinley's career that border closely on the romantic. He commenced life poor; his beginnings got no help from social prestige or political influence ; his education advanced little beyond the grade of the common HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 185 school. And yet, in the great places to which he mounted step by step- legislative, administrative and executive—he acquitted himself with that admirable tact and sagacity that won the confidence and the hearts of his countrymen. It would be difficult to imagine a man more agreeable in social companionship. His manners were natural and therefore most pleasing. Like his modes of thought, they were simple, 'easy, the unrestrained, hearty, cordial expression of his nature. He was the perfect type of a true American citizen. Undoubtedly his pleasing personality, and his intuitive knowledge and practice of the proprieties in all social contacts, whether these involved only the meeting of an old friend, or a state dinner given by him in the White House in honor of the heads of departments, or of ambassadors from foreign lands, were strong factors in his official advancement. His extraordinary popularity, especially among laboring people, was chiefly due to other reasons. It was due, in fact, to his powerful and, finally, successful efforts as the protagonist of their welfare. A fair understanding of the incipiency and methods of this championship necessitates a glance backward. The earliest progenitors of the McKinley family in America were of Scotch-Irish stock. They came to this country prior to the Revolution, and some of the members of the family held very honorable place in the army under Washington. Numerically the Scotch-Irish immigration was of comparatively slender proportions, but the names of their descendants constitute a very honorable page in American history. Among others the list comprises Jefferson and Jackson, Clay, Calhoun and Horace Greeley. President McKinley 's mother was of the Campbell family, also from the land of Burns and Bonnie Doon. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all known as "iron" men. With varying fortune they had occupied themselves with the development of the iron resources, both in Pennsylvania and Ohio. During his long term in Congress, William McKinley represented a district in which, including his own father, three generations of his progenitors, all iron men, lived and died. His father learned the trade of iron moulder, but afterwards embarked in the furnace business, making iron from native ores with charcoal. Owing to political changes, he had a varying fortune. His first charcoal furnace was at Niles, Ohio; his second at New Wilmington, Pennsylvania ; his third at Lorain, Ohio, and his last venture was at Caseville, Michigan. It was during McKinley's eighteenth year, and while he was teaching a country school, that the guns of Sumter sounded the call to arms. It was in June, 1861, that he responded to the call of President Lincoln 186 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY for 300,000 men, to serve three years, or during the war. He enlisted as a private soldier in Company E, Twenty-third Ohio Regiment. The personnel of the officers in command of this regiment comprised historic names, men of great influence whose high esteem and warm friendship, in after years, were grateful accessories to McKinley in his struggle for the measures of reform with which his name came to be so honorably associated. The first colonel of the Twenty-third Ohio was W. S. Rosecrans, who became one of the most noted generals in the war. It was while he commanded the Army of the Cumberland, second in size only to the Army of the Potomac, that the battles of Murfreesboro and Chickamauga, among the bloodiest conflicts of the war, were fought. The first lieutenant-colonel was Stanley Matthews, who, after his term of military service, was elected senator from Ohio, and subsequently became an associate justice of the Supreme Court at Washington. The first major was Rutherford B. Hayes, who became a general in the army ; afterwards governor of his own state, then President of the United States. The regiment was mustered into the service by Gen. John C. Fremont, the first candidate of the republican party for the Presidency, in 1856, and a prominent figure in pioneer American history. During a large part of his soldier life McKinley was an aid on the staff of General Hayes, one of the bravest of our commanders, and one whose place was at the forefront in many of the most fiercely contested battles of the Army of the Potomac. Eleven years after the war Hayes was elected President, and McKinley member of Congress. In the war Hayes had risen from colonel to general, and McKinley from private to major. Hayes was afterward thrice elected governor. During his campaigns he frequently visited Canton, always being the guest of the McKinley home. The affectionate regard of these men for each other was very marked. It was particularly felicitous for Major McKinley that his first four years in Congress were coincident with the administration of President Hayes. The youngest member of Congress, he had the intimate and near friendship of the ruler of the nation. No direct political advancement could, or did, grow out of this friendship. That, of necessity, had to be adjudged by the jury that composed his congressional district. The manner in which he acquitted himself before his constituents is well enough known and does not come within the scope of this sketch. That he was chosen as their standard bearer for seven successive campaigns was due, and could be due, to himself alone. Nevertheless the friendship of the President toward the young congressman was an aid to his quick prestige with the prominent leaders in HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 187 Congress such as rarely falls to the lot of a new man. The Canton people were pleased to find that their city had become a Mecca for great men. Garfield and Blaine, Hamlin and Logan, General and Senator Sherman, Windom, Burrows, and many others of equal note visited the city time and again as guests of their representative. They took no pains to disguise their partiality for him, expressed in terms that indicated a strong belief in his future as a powerful exponent and defender of the civic methods which he and they had espoused. As a matter of fact he had lost no opportunity to impress Congress and the country with the economic views with which his youth had been imbued, and which his later studies had precipitated in the form of absolute conviction. Although William McKinley was in office during nearly the entire period of his maturer years, it would convey a wrong impression to speak of him as an office-hunter. It would be more correct to say that the offices sought him. When his party was at the point of selecting its candidate for an important campaign, and when the other aspirants found themselves confronted by McKinley 's prestige and popularity, they remained discreetly away from a convention that could have but one easily discernible result. The faultlessness of McKinley's personal life shielded him from hurtful charges so apt to be exploited during the heat of political campaigns. In the absence of any available advantages from this source the opposition was forced to resort to other measures. The most promising of these was the "gerrymander," a change in a congressional district with the design of defeating some measure, or some candidate for office. Prior to his election to the governorship of Ohio he was universally spoken of as Major McKinley. Major McKinley's first election to Congress was from a republican district composed of Stark (the county of his residence), Mahoning, Columbiana and Carroll counties. That was in 1876. In the following year, 1877, the democrats obtained control of the Ohio Legislature. A new district was constructed—this time of Stark, Ashland, Wayne and Portage counties—a district which had footed up a democratic majority of 1,800. In 1878 Major McKinley carried this district with 1,300 majority. Again, in 1883, a new district was framed comprising Stark, Medina, Summit and Wayne counties, on lines that seemed to justify the expectation of a democratic majority of 900, but at the election in 1884 Major McKinley had a large majority. Once more, in 1889, the Ohio Legislature redistricted the state, this 188 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY time constructing the Eighteenth—known as McKinley 's District—in such a way as to make it democratic by 4,000 votes. That a man who had just seen his Congressional struggle of fourteen years' duration crowned with victory, and one who was, at that moment, in the enjoyment of prestige for wise statesmanship, for power in debate, and for safe leadership, such as has fallen to the lot of very few men, should invite or willingly assume the drudgery of such a campaign as this condition presaged is naturally out of the question. Nevertheless, fearless of the uses which he knew would be made of the fact of his defeat, he yielded to importunity and used his utmost efforts to gain the victory. He reduced the democratic majority from 4,000 to 303, and this defeat may justly be regarded as his greatest victory at the polls. In 1891 Major McKinley was the republican candidate for governor of Ohio. Very rarely did he have competitors for a party nomination. There was no other candidate for governor, and McKinley, though with unfeigned reluctance, relegated attention to his private affairs to a later day and accepted the republican candidacy. The nomination implied the platform, The questions to be decided were of national import. The nominee represented issues that overtopped his state. This personal wage of battle and polling of votes in a close state for a law of most complex nature, which had not yet fully gone into effect, bordered closely on rashness. Republican defeat in the single State of Ohio, and in the year of 1891, would have inflicted most serious injury to his party. Major McKinley fully appreciated the gravity of the dilemma in which he was placed. He was elected by a majority of 21,507. In 1893 McKinley was again nominated for governor of Ohio. He was now able to add the achievements of his career as an executive officer to his history as legislator. He had been governor two years, and his record was an open book. The vindication of himself and the championship of his party from the stump was easy. Like everything else undertaken by him, it was thoroughly well done. His success approximated a result never before reached in Ohio in times of peace, being a majority of 80,995. A narrative of the events constituting the life history of Governor McKinley during the years succeeding his second election would be simply a history of Ohio for the concurrent period. As to whether his career in executive office merited the approbation of his fellow citizens was settled in a most conclusive and honorable way ; first by the unanimity of the Ohio delegates for his candidacy for the presidency in the St. Louis convention in June, 1896, and then by his immense popular majority for President at the November election in the same year. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 189 Biographers of McKinley, and reviewers of the history of his time, undertake to present the causes of his rise from the humble family home in Niles to the chief magistrate of one of the greatest nations in the world's history. An epitome of the factors that, it is claimed, have contributed to his success would be of interest, but the scope of this memoir forbids its introduction. The campaign for the republican nomination for the presidency in 1895-6 disclosed some of these causes in a striking manner. The most interesting of these revelations was in the fact that although Major McKinley was not the choice of the professional politicians—most of that class were his avowed opponents— he was, nevertheless, the popular favorite. He was without prestige of family other than falls to the lot of any American born of industrious, God-fearing parents. He had been a soldier, but his highest military grade was comparatively humble. He had no wealth, no sumptuous establishment which enabled him to entertain and impress the social world. He had only his invalid wife and himself, and the mention of this fact exacts a retrospective glance at an event of capital import in the life of Major McKinley. Back in the '70s the handsome ex-soldier was superintendent of the Methodist Sunday School in Canton. At a quadrennial conference of that church, held years later in Cleveland, Ohio, an attending minister penciled on his knee an incident that he had just heard. The editor of one of the "Advocates" sat just in front of him. He passed his little sheet over to him with this whisper : "Here is an item for your paper." It read thus : "Nothing more romantic and beautiful in the matter of courtship has ever been published than that of the next President with the lovely woman who is now his wife. In Canton, the town where they resided, she was teacher of a large bible class in the First Presbyterian Church, and he the superintendent of the Sunday School of the First Methodist Episcopal Church. In going to their respective schools they passed each other at a certain corner, and found it pleasant to stop occasionally and indulge in conversation concerning their work. This went on for many months, until, on an ever-memorable Sunday afternoon in their history, he said to her : " I don't like this separation every Sunday, you going one way and I another. Let us change the order. Suppose after this we always go the same way. I think that is the thing for us to do. What do you think ?' " 'I think so, too,' was the answer, which gave him the most beautiful of wives and her one of the noblest and most devoted of husbands." The marriage took place on January 25, 1871. Their first child, 190 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY Katie, born on Christmas day, 1872, lived to be three years and six months old. Their second child, Ida, lived only half a year. In March, 1873, less than fifteen months after the birth of her first child, Mrs. McKinley's mother died. These cruel separations, coming one after another in quick succession, prostrated Mrs. McKinley, so that for many months her life hung suspended on a very slender thread. Her nervous system, most sensitive and high strung, was almost wrecked. The wounds upon her heart never fully healed. The most eminent specialists failed to restore the equipoise of perfect health. There was no defined malady or disease ; none of the irritability of feeble selfishness or prostration. When the enchanting dream of life was obscured by the sharp, quick eclipse of death, she fell into strong and loving arms, where, cradled by patience and goodness beyond the reach of words, and soothed by the healing hand of time, she was restored to the circle of those she had held most dear. McKinley's devotion to his wife has few parallels. It had been unceasingly, sensitively watchful. None could see, or know of it without being touched. A strong admiration for him is the inevitable result. This nation is made up, not only of republicans and democrats, or protectionists and freetraders, but of parents and children, of husbands and wives. Human nature, goodness and self-sacrifice open the door to our favor ; at the very least they oil the hinges, however rusted by prejudice and partisanisms. The widespread favor of the people toward Major McKinley was largely due to something else ; was in fact due to his achievements as a legislator, and to his powerful advocacy of political principles and methods in the public forums of the nation. The preparation for such labors as he accomplished necessarily presupposes seclusion, exhaustive study and profound thought. Excepting during the occupancy of his seat in the sessions of Congress. Mrs. McKinley was at her husband's side during all his public life. He was thus spared the exhausting and time-consuming inroads made on the lives of public men by the exactions of modern society life. Education, reading, temperament and perspicacity eminently fitted her for useful and helpful companionship. He was a great social favorite, but he needed no other society; his place was at her side. And it was there, in that pure atmosphere, sanctioned by love, by sorrow, and by supremest devotion, that Major McKinley built the foundations of that faith in himself, of that splendid reputation for patriotic statesmanship, that assured to him the highest token of approbation within the gift of a free people. Remembering all these gracious phases of the life of our martyred HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 191 President, visitors to the mausoleum at Canton will carry away with them certain recollections that are sure to vie successfully with the noble architecture of the great tomb for the uppermost place in their hearts. Where is the American wife who could enter the shadows under that majestic dome of granite ; who could stand upon that beautifully tessellated floor of rarely blended marbles—stand face to face with the imposing sarcophagus, double-crowned with the two caskets of granite, and inscribed with equal prominence in letters of gold—"William McKinley," "Ida McKinley "—where is the American woman who could view this stately tribute without a feeling of affectionate admiration for the rarely blended character that inspired it ? It is probable that no document from McKinley's pen electrified the country so intensely as his first written acceptance of the republican nomination for the presidency in 1896. His reputation as an orator and debater had already placed him in the front rank as a leader and statesman. In 1896 new questions of vital import to the republic were wedging their way to the front. In the paper referred to the questions pertaining to the public welfare, commercial, financial, political, were analyzed by a master hand. His party knew that no mistake had been made, and the country approved the policies he had foreshadowed with almost unprecedented unanimity. The same clearness, justice and patriotism characterized his presidential messages and inaugural addresses. A review of McKinley's presidential career, extending from March, 1897, to September, 1901, really involves the history of his country during the same period. The best review of his career as President was written by McKinley himself. It is to be found in his last inaugural address, delivered by him in Washington, March 4, 1901. Having thus briefly glanced at a few of the events characterizing McKinley 's official life, a review of his methods, and, incidentally, of the causes to which his popularity in his state, and in the country at large, may be attributed, will not be without interest. For the ascertainment of the immediate and direct causes we do not go far. His legislative acts simply voiced convictions entertained by the great body of his party in and out of Congress, and his vindication of these acts elicited the confidence and admiration of the people. His career as governor of Ohio gave ample proof that the conscience, the straightforwardness, and the broad grasp upon public affairs which characterized his leadership in Congress constituted the best possible equipment for the attainment of success in the executive field. The unexampled and unheard-of majority on the occasion of his re-election, after his first two years of governorship, in 1893, left nothing to be doubted as to the popular estimate of him as an executive officer. 192 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY While the events which make up the official history of a public man indicate in a general way the reasons for his rise or fall in public esteem, the inquiry which reveals the special and fundamental causes of his success or failure will have to be more precise. It will have to take into account, not only events or sequences, but more especially the personal traits, character, and methods of the individual with whose efforts these sequences are associated. It will be most satisfactory to take a glance at the personal methods which were peculiar to President McKinley, for these not only disclose the traits of the man—they intrinsically constitute the proof and basis of that characterization which should be the objective point of critical inquiry. We are often told that the old order of things has passed away and that a new age is upon us, with new issues and new ways of solving the problem of life. This is only partially true. Many of the old issues remain ; but as to the novelty of many modern conditions there can be no doubt. The most striking of the changes referred to are those involving the swift and thorough dissemination of intelligence. Formerly opportunities for seeing, hearing, and even reading the utterances of public men were comparatively rare. Railroads, telegraphs, printing presses were not as we now find them. The adherents of a party leader who had obtained distinction could exploit the public, summoning to their aid many advantages which are not now available. What simile is strong enough to correctly picture the close scrutiny to which public men are subjected now, when, not only all sayings and events of any interest, but also the more important comments thereon, are, within a few hours, published in every corner of the land ? And then, inside of a few added hours, come back the responses of the people, streams that, uniting, form that great current of public opinion which carries all before it. It was under these conditions, when the public passed intelligent judgment on every act and every utterance the very day, and almost the very hour, of its occurrence, that McKinley, step by step, gained the high position in public confidence and esteem that resulted in his large majorities in 1896 and in 1900. His judgment of public measures had the unanimous approbation of his party. His skill and power in debate constantly prevailed. His personal record was impermeable. The endorsement of his executive career had no parallel. In making this allusion to the unique majority by which McKinley was re-elected to the governor's chair in 1893, the propriety of a cursory review of his methods and peculiarities in forensic and campaigning work easily suggests itself. The one word which, more than any other, characterizes his life and HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 193 his methods is "simplicity." No one can recall the impression left on the mind by his speeches without confirming this statement. In his presentation of a subject all digressions that have as their main object a desire to make a show of learning, a flight of oratory, or a captious appeal, are conspicuously absent. There was no place for tawdry rhetoric or forensic display. On the contrary, there was a straightforward, consecutive and connected analysis of the issue under inspection, and, when the speaker had concluded, he had left upon the minds of his hearers, not only a clear and strong impression and understanding of the subject, but also of the facts and arguments upon which his convictions were founded. The science of political economy is most complex. Speeches such as McKinley prepared involved vast reading and research. His presentations of the subjects were, therefore, not only models of simplicity, but had all the added force that can be conferred by sound logic and argument. This constitutes the charm of his stump speeches to mixed audiences. The great tariff subject, so complex and mysterious, was presented so simply that every man could clearly comprehend it. The speaker did no fine spinning. He confined himself to elementary features. He dispelled the fogs and mysteries and ushered his hearers into the secrets of the whole thing. This square, honest, simple style of exposition lent a justly merited charm and power to McKinley's campaigning methods. Humor, pathos, and straining after dramatic effect all were absent, and yet no public speaker in the land was more sought after, nor hailed with great delight than this plain-talking but earnest champion of American industry. It was the very triumph of simplicity. Although McKinley was thoroughly versed in the minutiae of party mechanism, and was a profound student of politics in the broadest sense, his preference for the open, old-style modes of campaigning was most decided. Pending his candidacy, whether for Congress or governor, he seemed to have no other thought than to meet every voter and present his views of the situation in person. The keynote and mainspring of effort with him was his well-rooted conviction that the real good of the state must proceed from the family, the home, the individual. The prosperity, the real welfare of one is the welfare of all. Every great political reform with which his name had been identified has had as its principal aim the betterment of personal opportunity for the wage worker and the householder. It was, therefore, with the consciousness and confidence of a noble purpose that he met every citizen, mounted every platform, and, being the very personification of health, vigor, energy and frankness, he became one of the most formid- Vol. I-13 194 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY able as well as one of the most honorable and admirable campaign leaders this country has ever known. The simplicity which characterized McKinley 's methods of analysis and of presenting his subject may be safely taken as the keynote of the man in all respects. Being actuated by well-grounded opinion, with a contagious earnestness, he was always consistent and probably never made a speech he would have wished to recall. His record as a veteran soldier in the Union army left no doubt as to his past affiliations. He may have been less versatile than others, but he never went wrong. His rhetoric was not florid, but carried conviction by its strong logic and earnestness. No one ever accused him of imitation—his style, gestures, mannerisms were all his own. He was favored with a splendid voice which, without much apparent effort, and with great staying qualities under long stress, was capable of filling the largest halls. Neither in his public nor private utterances did he resort to personalities. He was an ideal gentleman. He assailed no one personally, and for those who ventured to assail him the recoil was sufficient to put a quietus to their power for harm. MCKINLEY 'S PRESIDENTIAL HOME-COMINGS The presidential campaigns, which resulted in Mr. McKinley's election by such decisive majorities, were unique in the history of American politics. He did not tour the country and harangue great crowds for their votes, as had been the custom of statesmen of real power who had aspired to the presidency, but remained quietly at home and received his thousands of supporters and friends as any other gentleman would entertain his relatives and neighbors. He made strong, earnest, straightforward speeches, and many of them, but they were delivered without ostentation to Canton audiences, and disseminated throughout the country from his home town. In this work of publicity the Canton Repository was a power, its editor, George B. Frease, being another son of McKinley's old law partner and valued friend, Judge Frease. Abiding affection for the good and reliable men with whom he came in contact was one of McKinley 's leading traits, and he carried this feeling, founded largely upon the gratitude which he felt he owed to certain individuals who had helped him in the building of character and fortune, to all worthy members of the family to whom he had become thus attached. The Frease family, including George B. and Harry Frease, was a noteworthy case in point. Mr. Frease of the Repository wrote, therefore, from the heart when (PICTURE) THE HISTORIC MCKINLEY HOME 196 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY he penned the following, which brings out so graphically the home scenes connected especially with the campaign of 1896 : "Undoubtedly the greatest day in Canton's history was Thursday, July 18, 1906. It was on that day that William McKinley was nominated, and the exciting scenes which followed the announcement of that nomination marked the beginning of a period of five months of political demonstration and party enthusiasm such as no other city in the world has experienced. "News of the nomination did not come to Canton in the nature of a surprise. On the contrary it had been a hope of months, and confidently expected from the time the delegates began to assemble in St. Louis and express their preferences. There was, however, a certain suspense and that degree of uncertainty which attends all matters political, and Cantonians impatiently awaited official assurance before giving vent to their feelings. "It was arranged in advance that the signal announcing the actual nomination should come from the Repository office. John Leininger, then fire chief, placed in the editorial room of the Repository, just over the desk of the Associated Press operator, a fire alarm box connected with the big gong in the city hall tower, which was to ring out the moment a sufficient number of votes were cast to insure McKinley's nomination. The number of the box was 918, representing the number of delegates in the convention, but the people did not wait for the tolling of the whole number. At the first stroke of the big gong pandemonium broke loose. The first crash was a deafening noise and this seemed to gain in volume second by second until it became almost impossible to carry on conversation either indoors or outside. "The McKinley home was the goal all sought to reach and no obstacles were allowed to deter the hurrying crowds. "There was an immediate abandonment of business. Some stores actually locked their doors. In others, the proprietor or one or two clerks were left alone. As to customers, there were none. All were headed towards the McKinley home, and except to guard against the operations of sneak thieves there was no occasion for any store attendants. Bands were out in a moment and they had to march on the double quick to keep ahead of the surging crowds. "It was at this time that the destruction of the beautiful McKinley lawn began. Fences that were in the way were quickly broken down and many persons now hold as highly prized relics palings they saved from the fence that originally enclosed the McKinley lawn. Flower beds vanished in a twinkling. "The first rush to the lawn called McKinley to the porch and a HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 197 speech was demanded and delivered. Scarcely was this over ere a train load of Alliance people arrived to offer their congratulations. There was no passenger train available as early as desired but there was a long freight train on the switch of the Morgan Engineering Company, composed of box cars, flat ears and gondolas. These were boarded by the crowd, an engine was connected and a record run of a freight train was made to Canton. That called for another speech. About the same time Massillon people appeared upon the scene. They came by trolley car, by private conveyance and over the Pennsylvania railroad. They were welcomed in a brief address. "Next day delegates returning from the St. Louis convention reached the city and stopped over to pay their respects to the nominee. There were more speeches—one to each crowd—and before the end of the week the front-porch speaking campaign which attracted the attention of the whole world to Canton was well under way. "From time to time there was pressure brought to bear upon McKinley to leave his home, take a swing around the country and make a campaign from the rear of a platform. This he steadfastly refused to do. Instead the crowds came to him. At first they were from Salem, Cleveland and places within easy reach, and to each McKinley made a speech that while specially referring to the industries or interests with which the delegates were connected, also was applicable to national issues, and for that reason sent broadcast over the land. "Day by day the delegations grew in number, continuing up to the Saturday before election. To the fullest possible extent Mr. 'McKinley personally greeted the members of these delegations, shaking hands with each one as he passed down the line. "Conservative estimates on the number of people who gathered on the historic lawn during the campaign of five months place the number at 1,250,000. Among the hundreds of delegations that assembled on the lawn were those from Vermont, from the upper peninsula of Michigan, from Texas, from Western Kansas and from the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, as well as from all parts of Ohio and Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, while there were individual callers and small groups representing practically every state and territory in the Union. "Probably the most notable and most interesting delegation was that from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, so-called, although many of the visitors were from the mountain sides that enclose that historic valley. Untutored in the ways of the world, for the most part were the members of this party, to accommodate which three trains were required and three days were occupied in the trip. Probably a majority of the men in the 198 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY delegation were Confederate veterans of the Civil war, many of them having fought under the immediate command of Stonewall Jackson. "Members of the Grand Army of the Republic from Canton and Massillon were joined by a large number of Union veterans from Cleveland to act as escort for their former foes, and the intermingling of these forces was undoubtedly the most thrilling sight ever witnessed in Canton. "Just in front of the McKinley house the Grand Army men formed in open order while the Grand Army band massed just at the end of the line in Louis avenue. The Confederates filed through the open ranks of their old foes to the stand where McKinley was waiting to greet them while the Southern band, playing 'Dixie ' as it approached the house, merged into the ranks of the Grand Army, joining the latter in playing `The Star Spangled Banner' and ' America' just as the two musical organizations merged. "It was pronounced by all who saw it as the most thrilling scene within their memory. Strong, rugged men wept like children as they looked upon the erstwhile foes in such companionship while women made no effort to conceal their tears. Probably no one was affected more than was McKinley himself. Tears trickled down his face as he greeted one by one the grizzled Southerners, giving each a hearty handshake. "The crowd that day was one of the largest of the campaign and for several hours it was practically impossible either to get to or away from the McKinley porch, while the reception and the exchange of greetings was going on. That incident was by many considered the beginning of the better feeling and closer relationship between North and South which was fully developed during the first McKinley administration and so fully exemplified during the Spanish-American war. "Another notable gathering was that assembled on the day of the formal opening of the Ohio campaign. The estimates of Canton railroad agents and traffic managers of the several companies who were sent here from the general offices to handle the heavy business placed the number of strangers in the city that day at over 60,000. On the Cleveland, Canton & Southern (now the Wheeling & Lake Erie) and the Cleveland Terminal (now the Baltimore & Ohio), shuttle trains were run between here and Cleveland from early morning until late at night, while on the Pennsylvania lines the extra cars used to bring the crowds in during the earlier part of the day filled the sidings from Wooster, on the west, to Alliance, on the east, until the exodus began late in the afternoon. "From the day after the nomination when the first crowd coming from St. Louis stopped off to pay its respects until the Saturday preceding the election there was scarcely a day except Sundays that there was not one or more visiting delegations. Efforts were made at times by some HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 199 enthusiasts to bring delegations on Sunday, and several did come, but Mr. McKinley positively refused to receive political callers on that day and the plan was abandoned. "A crowd of Detroit college students who came on a Sunday morning to pay their respects and expecting to hear a speech were lined up by McKinley's secretaries and marched off to church with him. "As soon as the nature of the campaign to be conducted became apparent Cantonians thoroughly prepared to take care of it. Two notable organizations were formed—the Citizens' Reception Committee and the McKinley Troop. The former was composed of representative business and professional men, not entirely partisan, for it included in its membership ex-Mayor John F. Blake and several others well known in the ranks of the Democratic party. Judge George E. Baldwin was chairman of the committee. Every train bringing a delegation was met by a part of this reception committee with carriages in which the spokesman and other leaders of the visiting delegation were driven to the McKinley home. "The McKinley Troop was composed of fifty horsemen wearing cavalry uniforms, under command of Col. Harry Frease. At least a part of the troop also met each delegation to act as escort to the house, and also back to the station if the visitors did not disband and scatter at the house. One or more bands was constantly on duty to receive the incoming delegations, other cities sometimes being called upon for musical organizations. "Upon reaching the McKinley home the spokesman and the head of the delegations were ushered into Mr. McKinley's office and introduced. There the spokesman outlined about what he expected to say. "The house then was a modest little frame building of about seven rooms. It was the house in which Major and Mrs. McKinley began their married life years before the opening of the campaign. "In this home, for the most part the summer vacations of the chief executive were spent, the family coming here soon after the adjournment of congress and remaining until early fall. "During such vacations Canton was virtually the Nation's capital and on several occasions all members of the cabinet who could be reached were summoned here for cabinet meetings on important matters of state. This was particularly true during the Boxer uprising in China. The acute stage in that situation, so far as the United States was concerned was handled from the Canton house. "It was from the Canton home that the Presidential campaign of 1900 was managed and directed, party leaders from all over the country coming here from time to time for conferences. Persistent efforts were 200 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY made from time to time that year to have President McKinley revive the delegation-receiving, speech-making program of 1896, but he declined to approve of such a program and also declined to make a speaking tour of the country. He limited his speaking in that campaign to the formal response to the notification committee. "Mrs. McKinley, invalid though she was, was an active participant in all of the important doings at the historic house. Her private rooms were on the south side of the house, and at the front window she was to be seen every day, an interested spectator of the doings of the passing crowds and an attentive listener to every speech made by her devoted husband. "Busy as he was in those days, Mr. McKinley never failed to drop into Mrs. McKinley's room after greeting each delegation to exchange a few words with her and to hear her comments upon the delegation. "At first she was greatly grieved to see the beautiful shrubbery and fine lawn so ruthlessly trampled by the invading crowds, but she soon became reconciled to the situation." As one result of these remarkable presidential campaigns conducted from Canton, famous men from every part of the country visited McKinley's home city to confer with their calm leader. That fact also made it especially appropriate that the splendid monument to his memory should be erected there, rather than at the national capital. JUSTICE DAY'S HISTORY OF THE GRAND MEMORIAL William R. Day, since 1903 associate justice of the United States Supreme Court and for nearly twenty years identified with the bench and bar of Stark County, was one of the closest personal friends of President McKinley, and as head of the Memorial Association, which brought the magnificent work of love to realization, gave a history of the movement at the dedication of the monument September 30, 1907, in the following words : "The McKinley National Memorial Association to-day presents its completed work to the Nation and people whose generosity has enabled it to be built. "For six years the work of duty and devotion crowned by the ceremony of this day has been carried forward. On the day when the vast concourse of people who attended the funeral of the martyred President paid their tribute of affection and regret, a few friends remained to consider the matter of providing the final resting-place and a suitable memorial to the lamented dead. Other places had been suggested, only one was seriously thought of. It was the known wish of William (PICTURE) THE MCKINLEY MEMORIAL FROM THE PLAZA - 201 202 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY McKinley that when he should receive the final summons which comes to all, his body should rest among kindred and friends and with the beloved ones of his blood who had gone before. It was the undivided opinion of those assembled that at some spot near his old home, near his kindred and among those beloved ones, the place of sepulchre should be located. "To make this purpose effectual no better means were suggested than the formation of a permanent society under the laws of Ohio, having for its objects the construction and maintenance of such a tomb and memorial. An executive committee had been appointed to have charge of the funeral ceremonies at Canton and this committee, consisting of Mayor James H. Robertson, William A. Lynch, John C. Welty, F. E. Case, Henry W. Harter and William R. Day, on the twenty-sixth day of September, 1901, by the filing of the proper certificate, effected an organization under the name of The McKinley National Memorial Association, the purpose of which was declared to be the erection and maintenance at Canton, Ohio, of a suitable memorial to William McKinley, late President of the United States ; the raising of the necessary funds, and, if any surplus be acquired, it should be devoted to such memorial as might be provided for the late President at Washington. It was resolved that the first Board of Trustees should be named by President Roosevelt, upon the suggestion of Mrs. McKinley. The President thereupon named : Marcus A. Hanna, Myron T. Herrick, William R. Day, William A. Lynch, of Ohio ; Henry C. Payne, of Wisconsin ; David R. Francis, of Missouri ; Alexander H. Revell, of Illinois ; Franklin Murphy, of New Jersey ; Henry M. Duffield, of Michigan ; George B. Cortelyou, Cornelius N. Bliss, John G. Milburn, E. W. Bloomingdale, of New York ; Ell Torrance, of Minnesota ; Robert J. Lowry, of Georgia ; Eli S. Hammond, of Tennessee ; Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indiana ; William McConway, Thomas Dolan, of Pennsylvania ; W. Murray Crane, of Massachusetts ; Henry T. Scott, of California. "To these was added the name of James A. Gary, of Maryland. On the tenth day of October, 1901, the oath of office was administered and a code of regulations governing the society was adopted, and the following officers chosen : President, William R. Day ; Vice-President, Marcus A. Hanna ; Treasurer, Myron T. Herrick ; Secretary, Ryerson Ritchie. "An appeal to the public was prepared and issued the same day. The object of the society was stated, and the hope was expressed that the memorial would be the sincere expression of all the people of the country of their love for William McKinley and their admiration of the qualities expressed so eminently in his life and deeds. It was declared that the, offerings of the people should be voluntary, with an opportunity HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 203 for all to contribute. The co-operation of the Governors and officers of the States and municipalities of the United States and of all religious, educational, civic and other organizations was invited. The press of the country were asked to lend its aid in collecting subscriptions. In conclusion, the appeal expressed the confident hope that the response of the people would be so liberal that a memorial might be erected that would fittingly commemorate the honored President. "As the Trustees lived in different States, on the twenty-eighth day of October, 1901, an Executive Committee was named which could be readily assembled for the transaction of business. On the sixth day of November, 1901, the Committee met in Cleveland, and the Secretary was authorized to open offices in that City for the transaction of the Association's business. In accordance with the regulations of the Association, the principal business office was established in Canton, and a local Secretary placed in charge thereof. It was informally decided that the sum of Six Hundred Thousand Dollars ($600,000) would be necessary to erect a suitable memorial and properly endow it with a fund for its care. This sum was apportioned among the States in a manner that seemed just and equitable. It was determined that the Governor of each State. or some well-known person within its borders, should be asked to effect a separate State organization, auxiliary to the National society and reporting to it from time to time. In many States such organizations were effected with excellent results. Many thousands of letters were sent to people throughout the Union, asking for their influence and co-operation in the raising of the necessary funds. A large amount of printed matter was furnished to the press of the country and generously published by it. The Grand Army of the Republic, benevolent, ecclesiastical and labor organizations were asked to take up the work within their own bodies, and they responded most nobly to the call. At a meeting of the Trustees, a little more than three weeks after the first call was issued, contributions were reported by the Treasurer from thirty-four of the different States. "Governor George K. Nash, of Ohio, as Chairman of the Ohio Auxiliary Board, issued a proclamation asking that the coming January 29th, the anniversary of the President's birth, be observed with appropriate exercises by the school children, in whose welfare the President ever took the warmest interest, and that every child in school be given an opportunity to contribute to the memorial fund. Governor Nash's proclamation was communicated to the Governor of each State in the Union, requesting similar action. This course had much to do with making McKinley's birthday a general holiday in the country, and the resulting contributions of the children made plain that the confidence 204 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY of the Association in their patriotism and love of a good man's memory had not been misplaced. A souvenir certificate was prepared, and with the approval of Postmaster-General Payne a request was made to each postmaster in the country for its distribution. "Oh March 15, 1902, Secretary Ritchie asked to be relieved from the care of the active charge of the Association's affairs, since which date the offices of the society have been in charge of Assistant Secretary Frederic S. Hartzell, with offices maintained for the transaction of business in Canton. "Canton having been chosen as the place, the society was early confronted with the question of the exact location of the memorial. The place from which it now rises was part of the property of the Canton Cemetery Association. From this eminence, with friends. McKinley had often looked upon the sweep of the surrounding city and country and remarked its eligibility as a site for a monument to the deceased soldiers and sailors of Stark County. A visit to this hill was made by the Board of Trustees, and the problem solved itself. It was at once decided to acquire this spot so adapted by nature to the purpose intended and overlooking the city and home of William McKinley. From the Cemetery Association and the adjoining property owners, a tract of twenty-six acres was acquired, which is now the property of the National Memorial Association. "At a meeting of Trustees on June 22, 1903, a report of the Treasurer showing that Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($500,000) had been subscribed to the memorial fund, it was determined that designs for the memorial should be invited, to be submitted to the Board for such action as it might thereafter determine upon. While the sum subscribed was thought ample to erect the memorial, it was recommended that an additional fund of One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000) would be necessary for the permanent endowment of the monument, with a view to its future care and repair. "To the request for the submission of designs for the memorial, such prompt and general response was made on November 19, 1903, more than sixty were submitted to the Board of Trustees. The Trustees, realizing the importance and lasting character of the work, and that none of their number was expert in sculpture and architecture, and that only the best results could be had by inviting the co-operation of the foremost skilled talent of the country, requested the co-operation of Mr. Robert S. Peabody of Boston and Mr. Walter Cook of New York, architects, and Mr. Daniel Chester French of New York, sculptor. These gentlemen visited the site of the monument and gave their help and efficient co-operation until the design was selected. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 205 "Examining the plans already submitted, they determined that it was best to invite six of the leading architects of the country, in addition to four who had already submitted designs deemed worthy of consideration, to enter upon the preparation of plans for which compensation should be given, to be submitted not later than January 1, 1904; and that from these the jury of experts, with the approval of a committee (PICTURE) THE NIEHAUS STATUE OF MCKINLEY from the Board of Trustees, without knowledge of the originators, should make selection upon the merits of the plans submitted as they appeared to the Board and committee. On November 22, 1904, the Trustees met in New York and received the report of the committee, conveying the information that after viewing and considering the ten designs submitted, that prepared and submitted by Mr. Harold Van Buren Magonigle of New York had been selected. With slight modifications that have occurred to the Architect from time to time, the completed design is now before you. 206 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY "The bronze statue and lunette are the work of Mr. Charles Henry Niehaus of New York, sculptor. The statue is made from the photograph by Miss Frances B. Johnston of Washington, representing President McKinley in the attitude of delivering at Buffalo that message of peace on earth, good will toward men, which fate had decreed should be his last public utterance. The lunette above the bronze entrance doors represents the victories of peace. "Contracts were made May 31, 1905, with the Harrison Granite Company of New York, for the erection of the mausoleum and the construction of the approaches, the work to be completed on or before September 1, 1907. Upon the same day a contract was made with the Gorham Manufacturing Company of New York for the construction of the bronze work on the dome, the doors, cornices and interior. The mausoleum was constructed under a sub-contract by George W. Maltby & Sons of Buffalo, New York. The landscape effects and parking of the grounds are the work of Wadley & Smythe of New York. "To the architect whose brain conceived the simple strength and beauty of the tomb and the grace and fitness of its approaches, and to all others who have contributed by head or hand to make his conception a reality, the Association tenders its sincere congratulations and hearty thanks. "The work of construction was begun on June 6, 1905, and had been so far carried forward that the corner-stone was laid on November 16, 1905, in the presence of a vast concourse of people, with brief and appropriate ceremonies. "For the construction and endowment of the monument the sum of Five Hundred and Seventy-eight Thousand Dollars ($578,000) has been raised. These subscriptions have come from every part of the National Union, from all the States and Territories and outlying lands beyond the seas. Every civilized country in the world is represented in these con tributions. On the reverse of the pedestal is inscribed the simple fact, more eloquent than words can be, that more than a million people thus testified their devotion to the memory and their appreciation of the life and character of the President who has well been called ' The Beloved of the People.' "It is needless to say that the collection and disbursement of so large a sum, and the construction of the mausoleum with its approaches, viewed simply as a business enterprise, has been a work of no inconsiderable magnitude. During the progress of the work the Trustees have found it necessary to hold twenty-three meetings, seven of these in Cleveland, four in Washington, four in New York and eight in Canton. A large and extended correspondence has been carried on through the HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 207 offices of the Secretary and Assistant Secretary, who have given to the society most careful and intelligent service. A detailed report from the Treasurer, Hon. Myron T. Herrick, of Cleveland, will be published in the book which will contain the record of this day 's proceedings and embody in permanent form a history of the Association. It is fitting upon this occasion that note should be taken of the fact that Governor Herrick has so managed the finances of the Association that all its operating expenses have been paid from the income and earnings of its funds, leaving the handsome sum of Thirty-seven Thousand Dollars ($37,000) accumulated from the earnings over and above the entire expenses of the Association in soliciting, collecting and disbursing the fund which has built the memorial. "The mausoleum as you behold it to-day is constructed of Milford pink granite, and the stairways are of the same solid material. The interior lining of the mausoleum is of Knoxville marble, and the sarcophagi of Windsor green granite with a base of Berlin black granite. The inscription below the cornice in the interior, 'Let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not conflict, and that our real eminence rests in the victories of Peace, not those of War,' is from the last public utterance of the President at Buffalo. "Upon the face of the pedestal of the statue these words are inscribed: 'William McKinley, President of the United States ; a statesman singularly gifted to unite the discordant forces of government and mould the diverse purposes of men toward progressive and salutary action ; a magistrate whose poise of judgment was tested and vindicated in a succession of national emergencies ; good citizen, brave soldier, wise executive, helper and leader of men, exemplar to his people of the virtues that build and conserve the state, society and the home.' These words were spoken by President Benjamin Ide Wheeler on May 17, 1901, in conferring for the University of California the degree of Doctor of Laws upon President McKinley. "With the kind permission of President Wheeler and the grateful appreciation of the Memorial Association, this admirable summary of the character and achievements of William McKinley is permanently inscribed in enduring marble. "On the original Board of Trustees, four have died during the progress of the work : Senator Marcus A. Hanna, Postmaster-General Henry C. Payne, Judge Eli S. Hammond and William A. Lynch. All were closely identified with the work of the Association and were most important factors in originating and carrying it forward. It is with profound regret that we note their absence on this occasion, and with deep sorrow mourn the loss to their friends and country entailed in the 208 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY death of such men. The vacancies thus created in our ranks, except the one created by the death of Senator Hanna, whom it was voted there should be no attempt to replace, were filled by the appointment of Charles G. Dawes of Illinois, Horace H. Lurton of Tennessee, and Henry W. Harter of Ohio. With the exception of the Secretary while in charge and the Assistant Secretary, there have been no paid officials of the Association, and no expense incurred by the Trustees in the discharge of their duties has been paid from its funds. "Perhaps no public man in our history has more attracted the attention of the people by the simplicity and beauty of his home life than did William McKinley. The devoted affection for the invalid wife, repaid by her with a love that never altered, made of the Canton home a picture which all the world admired as the perfection of domestic peace and conjugal affection, and which is forever consecrated in the memory of all who were permitted to behold it. "It is fitting that beside the man whose first thought and purpose were for her the beloved wife should be laid to rest. In the wall of the mausoleum niches have been provided for the two infant children early called from earth. "Thousands of loving hands have joined to bring the little family together in this beautiful temple. "In dedicating this memorial, from this day forth, to the high purposes for which it is intended, the Trustees of the Memorial Association cannot refrain from expressing the hope that it may serve to commemorate the life and deeds of the illustrious dead, may teach coming generations the lesson of a noble, pure and generous life, and impress upon the youth who shall look upon it in all the coming years, that true success is only to be built upon exalted character, and that the highest public honors and universal popular esteem are not inconsistent with a life devoted to the faithful and cheerful discharge of the simple duties of each day which make up the life of a good man and patriotic citizen." At the conclusion of President Day's address, Governor Harris announced the unveiling of the statue that stood, draped in flags, overlooking the great audience. Miss Helen McKinley, the President's sister, was led to the center of the platform by President Day, and a garland of flowers was placed in her hand, attached to which was a line that connected with the beautiful canopy of the statue. With an obeisance full of dignity and pathos she drew the slender cord, the flags parted, and the bronze figure of her sainted brother was disclosed. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 209 MEMORIAL POEM BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY The hush that covered the splendid gathering for a brief period while the banners gracefully parted and receded from the wonderfully lifelike work of the sculptor, was a touching tribute of regretful homage by a people instinct with patriotic devotion, and in admirable consonance with the sentiment of the moment came the musical words of the distinguished poet, James Whitcomb Riley, who was most opportunely introduced by Governor Harris. Mr. Riley had written for the occasion, and delivered with pathetic fervor the following poem: He said : "It is God's way ; His will, not ours, be done." And o'er our land a shadow lay That darkened all the sun ; The voice of jubilee . That gladdened all the air Fell sudden to a quavering key Of suppliance and prayer. He was our chief—our guide— Sprung of our common earth, From youth's long struggle proved and tried To manhood's highest worth ; Through toil, he knew all needs Of all his toiling kind, The favored striver who succeeds, The one who falls behind. The boy's young faith he still Retained through years mature— The faith to labor, hand and will, Nor doubt the harvest sure— The harvest of Man's love— A Nation's joy that swells To heights of song, or deep whereof But sacred silence tells. To him his Country seemed Even as a mother, where He rested—slept ; and once he dreamed— As on her bosom there- Vol. I - 4 210 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY And thrilled to hear, within That dream of her, the call Of bugles and the clang and din Of war— And o'er it all His rapt eyes caught the bright Old Banner, winging wild And beck'ning him, as to the fight When—even as a child— He awakened— And the dream Was real ! And he leapt As led the proud flag through a gleam Of tears the Mother wept. His was a tender hand— Even as a woman's is— And yet as fixed, in Right's command, As this bronze hand of his : This was the soldier brave— This was the Victor fair— This is the Hero Heaven gave To glory here-and There. ORATION OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT Following the reading of Mr. Riley, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, was introduced by Governor Harris, and his oration commanded the rapt attention of the vast audience to his last word. He said : "We have gathered together to-day to pay our meed of respect and affection to the memory of William McKinley, who as President won a place in the hearts of the American people such as but three or four of all the Presidents of this country have ever won. He was of singular uprightness and purity, of character, alike in public and in private life ; a citizen who loved peace, he did his duty faithfully and well for four years of war when the honor of the Nation called him to arms. As Congressman, as Governor of his State, and finally as President, he rose to the foremost place among our statesmen, reaching a position which would satisfy the keenest ambition ; but he never lost that simple and thoughtful kindness toward every human being, great or small, lofty or humble, with whom he was brought in contact, which so endeared him to our people. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 211 "He had to grapple with more serious and complex problems than any President since Lincoln, and yet, while meeting every demand of statesmanship, he continued to live a beautiful and touching family life, a life very healthy for this Nation to see in its foremost citizen ; and new the woman who walked in the shadow ever after his death, the wife to whom his loss was a calamity more crushing than it could be to any other human being, lies beside him here in the same sepulchre. "There is a singular appropriateness in the inscription on his monument. Mr. Cortelyou, whose relations with him were of such close intimacy, gives me the following information about it : On the President's trip to the Pacific slope in the spring of 1901, President Wheeler, of the University of California, conferred the degree of LL. D. upon him in words so well chosen that they struck the fastidious taste of John Hay, then Secretary of State, who wrote and asked for a copy of them from President Wheeler. On the receipt of this copy he sent the following letter to President McKinley, a letter which now seems filled with a strange and unconscious prescience : " 'Dear Mr. President: " 'President Wheeler sent me the inclosed at my request. You will have the words in more permanent shape. They seem to me remarkably well chosen, and stately and dignified enough to serve-long hence, please God—as your epitaph. " 'Yours faithfully, " `JOHN HAY.' `UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Office of the President " 'By authority vested in me by the regents of the University of California, I confer the degree of Doctor of Laws upon William McKinley, President of the United States, a statesman singularly gifted to unite the discordant forces of the government and mold the diverse . purposes of men toward progressive and salutary action, a magistrate whose poise of judgment has been tested and vindicated in a succession of national emergencies ; good citizen, brave soldier, wise executive, helper and leader of men, exemplar to his people of the virtues that build and conserve the state, society, and the home.' " 'Berkeley, May 15, 1901.' "It would be hard to imagine an epitaph which a good citizen would be more anxious to deserve, or one which would more happily describe the qualities of that great and good citizen whose life we here commemorate. He possessed to a very remarkable degree the gift of uniting discordant forces and securing from them a harmonious action 212 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY which told for good government. From purposes not merely diverse, but bitterly conflicting, he was able to secure helpful action for the good of the state. In both poise and judgment he rose to the level of several emergencies he had to meet as leader of the Nation, and like all men with the root of true greatness in them he grew to steadily larger stature under the stress of heavy responsibilities. He was a good citizen and a brave soldier, a chief executive whose wisdom entitled him to the trust which he received throughout the Nation. He was not only a leader of men but preeminently a helper of men ; for one of his most marked traits was the intensely human quality of his wide and deep sympathy. Finally, he not merely preached, he was that most valuable of all citizens in a democracy like ours, a man who in the highest place served as an unconscious example to his people of the virtues that build and conserve alike our public life, and the foundation of all public life, the intimate life of the home. "Many lessons are taught by his career, but none more valuable than the lesson of broad human sympathy for and among all of our citizens of all classes and creeds. No other President has ever more deserved to have his life work characterized in Lincoln's words as being carried on `with malice toward none, with charity toward all.' As a boy he worked hard with his hands ; he entered the army as a private soldier ; he knew poverty ; he earned his own livelihood, and by his own exertions he finally rose to the position of a man of moderate means. Not merely was he in personal touch with farmer and town dweller, with capitalist and wageworker, but he felt an intimate understanding of each, and therefore an intimate sympathy with each ; and his consistent effort was to try to judge all by the same standard and to treat all with the same justice. Arrogance toward the weak, and envious hatred of those well off, were equally abhorrent to his just and gentle soul. "Surely this attitude of his should be the attitude of all our people . to-day. It would be a cruel disaster to this country to permit ourselves to adopt an attitude of hatred and envy toward success worthily won, toward wealth honestly acquired. Let us in this respect profit by the example of the people of the republics in this western hemisphere to the south of us. Some of these republics have prospered greatly, but there are certain ones that have lagged far behind, that still continue in a condition of material poverty, of social and political unrest and confusion. "Without exception the republics of the former class are those in which honest industry has been assured of reward and protection ; those where a cordial welcome has been extended to the kind of enterprise which benefits the whole country, while incidentally, as is right and proper, giving substantial rewards to those who manifest it. On the HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 213 other hand, the poor, and backward republics, the republics in which the lot of the average citizen is least desirable, and the lot of the laboring man worst of all, are precisely those republics in which industry has been killed because wealth exposed its owner to spoliation. To these communities foreign capital now rarely comes, because it has been found that as soon as capital is employed so as to give substantial remuneration to those supplying it, it excites ignorant envy and hostility, which result in such oppressive action, within or without the law, as sooner or later to work a virtual confiscation. Every manifestation of feeling of this kind in our civilization should be crushed at the outset by the weight of a sensible public opinion. "From the standpoint of our material prosperity there is only one other thing as important as the discouragement of a spirit of envy and hostility toward honest business men, toward honest men of means ; this is the discouragement of dishonest business men, the war upon the chicanery and wrong-doing which are peculiarly repulsive, peculiarly noxious, when exhibited by men who have no excuse of want, of poverty, of ignorance, for their crimes. "Men of means, and, above all, men of great wealth, can exist in safety under the peaceful protection of the state, only in orderly societies, where liberty manifests itself through and under the law. It is these men who, more than any others, should, in the interests of the class to which they belong, in the interests of their children and their children's children, seek in every way, but especially in the conduct of their lives, to insist upon and build up respect for the law. It may not be true from the standpoint of some particular individual of this class, but in the long run it is preeminently true from the standpoint of the class as a whole, no less than of the country as a whole, that it is a veritable calamity to achieve a temporary triumph by violation or evasion of the law ; and we are the best friends of the man of property ; we show ourselves the staunchest upholders of the rights of property, when we set our faces like flint against those offenders who do wrong in order to acquire great wealth or who use this wealth as a help to wrong-doing. "Wrong-doing is confined to no class. Good and evil are to be found among both rich and poor, and in drawing the line among our fellows we must draw it on conduct and not on worldly possessions. In the abstract most of us will admit this. In the concrete we can act upon such doctrine only if we really have knowledge of and sympathy with one another. If both the wage-worker and the capitalist are able to enter each into the other's life, to meet him so as to get into genuine sympathy with him, most of the misunderstanding between them will disappear and its place will be taken by a judgment broader, juster, 214 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY more kindly, and more generous ; for each will find in the other the same essential human attributes that exist in himself. It was President McKinley's peculiar glory that in actual practice he realized this as it is given to but few men to realize it ; that his broad and deep sympathies made him feel a genuine sense of oneness with all his fellow-Americans, whatever their station or work in life, so that to his soul they were all joined with him in a great brotherly democracy of the spirit. It is not given to many of us in our lives actually to realize this attitude to the extent that he did ; but we can at least have it before us as the goal of our endeavor, and by so doing we shall pay honor better than in any other way to the memory of the dead President whose services in life we this day commemorate." When the President had concluded his address, and the applause subsided, Governor Harris announced the hymn "America," and the entire audience rose in unison to voice in glorious melody the ardor of their loyalty. Then with the last words of the majestic anthem but dying from his lips, the Rt. Rev. Ignatius F. Horstmann, D. D., Bishop of Cleveland, advanced to the center of the rostrum and brought the ceremonies to a dignified and impressive close with a fitting invocation. DESCRIPTION BY ARCHITECT MAGONIGLE The property of the association is of irregular shape and includes, approximately, twenty-six acres. It is adjoined along a portion of the northerly and westerly boundaries by Westlawn Cemetery ; to the south lies the Water Works Park, but separated from it by Linden Avenue, the thoroughfare chiefly used by visitors who go to the memorial in vehicles. The nearest trolley line is on West Tuscarawas Street, about a quarter of a mile from the southerly boundary, and Hazlett Avenue is the principal line of communication between that street and the westerly entrance to the grounds at the end of Hazlett. When the city park system, of which the Water Works Park is now a nucleus, is extended, the natural and more agreeable route from the cars will lie through the park. A carriage road is also proposed, and visitors will thus be led directly to the main entrance. In its original condition the southerly portion of the property, for about a thousand feet north of Linden Avenue, was low-lying, swampy land, with a branch of the Nimishillen Creek near the easterly line and a raceway that supplies the water works running diagonally across it. Beyond this swamp the ground rose quite abruptly into the eminence known as Monument Hill, the site chosen for the mausoleum itself. This hill is at the end or spur of a long ridge, separated from the HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 215 cemetery on the southwest and northwest by a little valley and on the northeast by a densely wooded ravine. It is a gravel formation with some thin strata of shale and white clay. Its base was fringed with willows and wild cherry and some fair specimens of elm. The hill itself was bare of trees, except to the north, where a thin stand of red oaks and other hardwood growth existed. In the valley between the hill and the cemetery was the bed of an old mill-pond, through which ran a copious brook, with some fine willows on its southerly bank. There were but two fixed factors to guide the architect with respect to the general plan to be worked out—the mausoleum was to stand on Monument Hill, and the approach thereto was to be from Linden Avenue. After a careful examination of the ground he determined upon two points of departure for the development of his design. First, that the mausoleum and its immediate entourage should be circular in form, as best adapted to the natural shape of the hill ; and, second, that with an abundant supply of water so readily available a treatment of the approaches that should include some use of it was clearly indicated. The earliest sketches contained the germ of the finished work, and as the plan developed it was observed that its shape suggested a cross-hilted sword with the mausoleum at the junction of the blade, guard and hilt— the cross of the martyr, the sword of the President in time of war. This idea was adhered to and carried into execution. The southerly arm of the cross is formed by the approach roads and a "Long Water" or basin and the main flight of steps ; the easterly and westerly arms by minor flights ; and the northerly by a broad, straight drive, connected by a winding road with the system of drives in the adjacent cemetery. As the design took definite form various other considerations presented themselves ; the memorial was to be dedicated to a great man of simple and dignified life ; it was to be erected in a small city, not a metropolitan center ; and the funds available were not such as to warrant lavish display had such been either appropriate or desirable. On the other hand, the property was of considerable extent, the distances themselves on a monumental scale. All this contributed to suggest a design that should express the dignity of McKinley's character, be conceived on a scale commensurate with its environment, and possess such breadth and unity of effect that it might be comprehended in all its essentials. at a first glance, and with such a treatment of the details of the composition as would not disturb the ensemble but give interest, variety and scale on nearer approach. Reduced to its simplest terms, the composition possesses two salient characteristics : (a) A long vista between walls of foliage leading up to (b) a green terraced hill crowned by the mausoleum. 216 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY For a vista of adequate width, one that would afford an unobstructed view of the mausoleum and its immediate adjuncts, a single roadway was out of the question ; the scale would have been too large. The streets by which the memorial is approached are of moderate width, and it was not possible to create a proper point of departure at Linden Avenue for a wide boulevard. It seemed more desirable to effect a gradual transition from the scale of the city streets to that of the memorial, and vice versa, so that a visitor would be insensibly led from the one scale to the other on entering and on leaving the grounds. Moreover, a vista of equal width throughout its length would have seemed to converge unduly at its further end. The problem was solved by establishing the width of the road at thirty feet, at its junction with Linden Avenue, corresponding to the width of the roadbed of that thoroughfare, gradually widening for a distance of about 300 feet to the foot of the "Long Water," which itself takes up and prolongs the lines of the road and widens to fifty-four feet at its upper end. At the foot of this basin the road divides into two, each of a clear width of twenty feet, which pass up the sides and enter an oblong plaza, at the base of the hill, lying transversely to the axis of the approaches. The treatment of the approaches was suggested by the original condition of the ground. Linden Avenue lay seventeen feet below the foot of the hill, and the swampy land between varied from six or eight to fifteen and eighteen feet below these points. Two dikes were therefore constructed at either side of the proposed basin, connecting at its foot with a broader, single dike to Linden Avenue. Part of the material was excavated from the basin, and the balance was brought in from outside, to a total extent of about 80,000 cubic yards. One of the chief springs of interest in landscape work lies in the quality of surprise, in re-awakening interest at certain points. It has been noted that Linden Avenue lies seventeen feet below the foot of the hill a thousand feet distant. The approach roads therefore are constantly rising, and as a result the Long Water is not visible on entering the grounds, nor until the foot of it is almost reached, when it reveals itself as a silver mirror reflecting the mausoleum and the landscape on its surface. An interesting problem was presented in the treatment of this feature. The source of supply originally contemplated was from the pond to be re-created on the site of the old mill-pond before referred to, and the greatest head that could be secured was so slight that it was necessary to keep the water-level in the basin as low as possible ; since the level of the roads was constantly rising along the sides, the water would, by an optical illusion, have appeared to run down hill toward the mausoleum. In order to overcome this the basin was subdivided HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 217 into five levels, each twenty inches higher than the one below, the result being that, as a whole, it is made more nearly parallel to the line of the banks. These changes in level produce four cascades which pour over weir walls curved to avoid the stiffness of straight lines and to catch the light in different ways on the veil of water. One of the refinements practiced, to avoid the apparent dip in the center of any long, horizontal lines, was to build the roadbeds, and consequently the top of the banks beside the basin, on the arc of a circle, the chord passing through a point at the southerly side of the plaza and the crown of Linden Avenue, the highest point of the arc being two feet above the chord at its center. This device gives unusual spring and life to the lines and surfaces. The roadbeds are excellently constructed with a foundation of large cobble stones, one foot thick, topped with six inches of gravel thoroughly rolled and compacted. Catch basins and systems of pipes for drainage and for a water supply for sprinkling the lawns and caring for the trees and shrubs were installed. Besides the transition from the scale of the streets to that of the memorial, another was necessary—a gradual change in character that should have its effect upon the visitor. The interest must constantly increase, the elements of the design must be multiplied, minor compositions contributing to the general effect be introduced, and all the adjuncts must become more architectural in their character and the mind insensibly prepared for the severe design of the tomb itself. Therefore, from the entrance to the plaza at the base of the hill, while the lines of road and Long Water are entirely formal, the elements used are merely such as nature provides in turf, trees and shrubs, except the low copings of the basin. The plaza seemed the proper place for the actual interfusion of natural and architectural forms. Accordingly it is enclosed and defined by low, heavy, granite walls on the north and south, but at the segmental ends to the east and west the enclosure is made by broad hedges of privet clipped to the height and width of the walls, accented by large granite piers at either side of openings giving access on the east to a footpath leading around the hill to the ravine and on the west to a road connecting with the cemetery drives. Japanese ivy (Ampelopsis) is planted at certain intervals to cover and conceal portions of the granite work, to soften its hard lines and assist, with broad bands of turf carried all around the plaza, in uniting it to its natural surroundings. On the northerly side are two granite garden houses for the storage of tools and the like, placed opposite to and centering upon the roads bordering the basin. They serve, on the esthetic side, a double purpose—to give, individually, points of interest at the ends of the road vistas, and together, to act as part of a triangu- 218 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY lar composition of which the statue and pedestal form the apex. On the southerly side the line of the enclosing wall, opposite to the main flight of approach steps, is broken by a segmental recess or bay. The turf bank on the basin side of the wall is curved to follow this line, and the coping of the Long Water at its foot repeats it, thus interlocking, as it were, the basin and plaza. From the center of the north side rises the main flight of approach steps, fifty feet wide in the clear and flanked by copings at each side four feet in width. It is broken into four flights of twenty-three risers each, with broad landings between, the central one being twenty feet and the two others fifteen feet wide. The total length is 194 feet. On the lower edge of the central landing stands the pedestal of the statue, of Knoxville marble, resting on a soele of Milford granite (the material used for all of the exterior masonry of the memorial, including that of the mausoleum). The pedestal is extremely simple, the base being merely a torus, fillet and scotia, the die diminishing toward the top and having a slight entasis or outward curve. Near the top on each face are slightly sunken panels, with bands of oak leaves terminated with discs, in very low relief, set in them. Above the marble die is a moulded plinth of bronze with a delicate vine of conventionalized ivy running around it, signifying constancy, a distinguishing trait of the President's character. This moulded bronze plinth receives the actual plinth of the statue and forms a strong and satisfactory base for it, of similar material and color. On the southerly face of the die are carved, in incised Roman letters, the words of Benjamin Ide Wheeler, president of the University of California, on the occasion of McKinley's investiture with the degree of Doctor of Laws. As inscribed, the tense only is modified from the original : "WILLIAM McKINLEY "President of the United States A statesman singularly gifted to unite the discordant forces of government and mould the diverse purposes of men toward progressive and salutary action—a magistrate whose poise of judgment was tested and vindicated in a succession of national emergencies-good citizen—brave soldier—wise executive—helper and leader of men—exemplar to his people of the virtues that build and conserve the state, society, and the home." On the reverse of the die is recorded the fact that "This Memorial was erected by the contributions of more than one million men, women and children in the United States and many others in foreign lands." HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 219 The pedestal was carefully subordinated to the statue, its simplicity of outline serving as a foil to the more complicated lines and masses of the sculptor's work. Charles Henry Niehaus, a native of Ohio, but resident in New York City, was commissioned by the association to execute this noble portrait. McKinley is represented in one of the attitudes assumed by him during his memorable last speech but a few hours before his assassination in Buffalo. The weight of the figure rests almost equally on both feet, the left slightly advanced. The right hand is thrust into the trousers pocket; the arm holding back the coat. The left arm is bent, the forearm slightly extended to the front, and the hand holds a sheaf of manuscript. The head is a splendid likeness, expressing all his power and benignity. Mr. Niehaus has succeeded in treating the usually unmanageable frock coat in such a masterly manner that grace and easy flow of line are added to the majesty of the portrait. Behind the President is a chair of state (designed for the sculptor by the architect, on Greek lines) with the American flag thrown over it, to give added mass and a sense of support to the figure which would otherwise have appeared unduly isolated, and contribute to a composition that has rarely been equalled in American portrait sculpture. The statue is 9 feet and 6 inches high from crown to sole. The pedestal, including the bronze plinth, is 13 feet and 6 inches high, 7 feet and 3 inches wide and 10 feet and 3 inches in length. By a fortunate concurrence of conditions the statue, as seen from above at the door of the mausoleum, falls exactly within the confines of the Long Water, which acts for it from this point as a background and a frame. The original contours of the hill were very materially changed, over 35,000 cubic yards having been moved to create four terraces coinciding in height and pitch with the four runs of steps in the main staircase. These terraces are circular in plan, the arcs having their center in the mausoleum. At the level of the wide central landing where the statue stands is a broad footpath rising gradually toward the extreme rear, where it connects with the northerly arm of the cross. To the east and west it gives access to the two minor staircases, twenty-five feet wide in the clear, the runs corresponding to one and a half flights of the main steps. This path is to provide constantly changing points of view sufficiently close to the mausoleum for examination of its details without loss of general mass and proportion. The three staircases lead up to a circular emplacement or platform 178 feet in diameter, paved with granolithic and bordered by a granite coping similar in dimensions and detail to the cheeks of the steps. The foundations of platform and 220 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY staircases is an interesting system of reinforced concrete piers and girders—the first use of this method of construction in monumental work of this character. The mausoleum is a circular, domical structure of an exterior diameter of seventy-five feet above the base and ninety-seven feet high from the circular platform to the highest point, with a flat pavilion projecting slightly on the entrance or southerly side. It is without windows, and is lighted entirely through the oculus or opening in the dome. The exterior is treated with a strong watertable and a band above it enriched with fiat projecting panels. Over this rises a perfectly plain wall with an architrave, frieze and cornice near the top. The frieze is decorated with heavy votive garlands of ivy much conventionalized, a version of the Greek treatment of the Hedera Helix. The only other decoration in this entablature is a line of strong dentils in the cornice. The entrance pavilion is approached by a short flight of steps leading to a lofty arched doorway set in an arched recess. The entablature of the circular portion of the building is carried across the pavilion, the architrave and frieze being interrupted over the doorway by a long panel, flanked at either end with a palm branch and wreath of immortelles. The panel bears this inscription in square-sunk letters : 1843 In Memoriam 1901 WILLIAM McKINLEY President of the United States Above the lower drum just described is another, somewhat smaller in diameter, treated with very flat, wide pilasters, confining shallow recessed panels with a disc in the center of each, supporting a cornice secondary in importance to that on the lower drum. Above the cornice the wall continues for about three feet, the top accented by a slight embattlement. Above this again, slightly recedent, is a strong step from which springs the dome terminated by a battlemented civic crown. Some distance below the crown a great wreath of laurel, in gilded bronze, encircles the dome. Both of the drums are "battered" or inclined inward from a vertical line, the lower drum being sixteen inches less in diameter at the top than at the bottom, and the upper diminishing in proportion. The entire exterior is constructed of pink Milford granite, including the covering of the dome. It was a difficult question to determine exactly how to proportion the details to the mass, in a structure so isolated, visible at a great distance, and yet subject also to close inspection and study. The answer HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 221 seemed to be found in such simplicity of outline and clear definition of the main masses of light and shade that they would carry a long distance, and in such refinement of the profiles of the individual parts as would satisfy the eye when seen nearby. The interior is also circular, fifty feet in diameter in its least dimension and seventy-seven feet from the floor to the eye of the dome. An unusual and interesting problem was here presented for solution. In the tombs of Napoleon and of Grant the sarcophagi repose in a crypt and are seen from above; but it seemed to the architect that it would be far more dignified and impressive to raise the double sarcophagus above the mortuary chamber floor so that visitors should lift their eyes to the illustrious dead. The sarcophagus was to be made double to contain the bodies of the President and Mrs. McKinley and to appear as two in one. The width of both exactly equalled the length of one, resulting in a square of considerable bulk, set in a circular room of comparatively small diameter. The difficulty was to treat this room so that the mass of the sarcophagi and the socle or base on which they rest would have a proper relation to the walls. It was solved by creating four recesses or "bays" on the four cardinal axes, and relating the sarcophagi to these recesses with a floor design of colored marbles, of which the dominant feature is a Greek cross whose ends extend into the bays, with the sarcophagi at the intersection of the arms. The relation was further emphasized by repeating the color of the walls in the general field of the floor, and that of the sarcophagi in the cross. The bays are treated as arched recesses, flanked by engaged Doric columns, three feet and three inches in diameter, resting on a socle and surmounted by an entablature. Over each arch are keystones on which eagles are sculptured, poised as if preparing for flight, with wings half outspread and holding the conventional thunderbolt, wreathed with olive, in their talons. The keystones themselves bear the thirteen stripes of the flag, the composition expressing by a simple symbolism the national character of the memorial. Something in the attitude of these four great birds gives them the aspect of guardians keeping watch and ward eternally over the dead. In the frieze of the entablature over the columns is graven a sentence from the President's last speech at Buffalo: "Let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not conflict, and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war." This inscription begins at the center opposite the entrance door and runs entirely around the frieze. The cornice is lightly enriched with dentils. From the floor to the top of the cornice the walls are faced with an 222 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY ashlar of light grey Tennessee marble from the "Grey Eagle" quarries at Knoxville, many of the stones being extremely large, and none less than four inches thick. Above the marble cornice is an attic with pilasters over the columns and recessed panels over the recesses below. At each end of the panels is an inverted torch, emblematic of death. Over the attic is a secondary cornice, separating it from the dome which is paneled with simple coffers without mouldings. The opening or oculus in the center is bordered with a raised band with a Greek fret, and is filled with a ceiling light (only partially glazed, for ventilation), in which forty-five stars are set, representing the States of the Republic at the date of McKinley's death. The attic and dome are finished with a Portland cement stucco of a tone similar to the light grey marble of the lower walls. Ornament is very sparingly employed, and that only of the most serious and quiet character. Every moulding was carefully studied with reference to its position. Lighting and height from the eye and comparison of the drawings with their effect in execution reveals many refinements of detail to accomplish the results desired. In the center of this simple and solemn mortuary chamber are the sarcophagi designed to appear as two in one, each hewn from single blocks of polished, dark green granite from Windsor, Vermont, and covered with heavy, plainly moulded tops of the same material. Around both sarcophagi near the top is a band of laurel in relief, gilded and toned to relieve, and harmonize with, the granite. This wreath, binding the two sepulchres together, may be interpreted as symbolizing the victory of love and constancy over death. On the ends facing the door, in bronze letters let into the granite and gold-plated, are inscribed the simple names : "William McKinley," "Ida McKinley." On the sides are large rings cut out of the solid granite. Directly under them are conventional "bearers" on which the sarcophagi rest, their ends carved with highly conventionalized lions' heads, lying athwart the socle or base, of polished "Black Berlin" granite from Wisconsin. This granite closely resembles porphyry in many respects, especially in its color, a very dark maroon, almost black, of precisely the proper color value required. The socle has a base moulding carved with strong reeds bound together with simple bands. Above it the die inclines inward, opposing the lines of the sarcophagi, and has a strong, simple cornice enriched with a Greek fret in relief. Around the sarcophagi and their supporting socle is a low parapet of Knoxville marble. At the left of the entrance doorway is a room for the custodian, with a stairway leading to the crypt. From this room the upper part of the HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 223 structure is reached by a ladder. Corresponding with this room on the right is a room for the archives of the association. Simple bronze doors shut these rooms off from the mortuary chamber. The great entrance doors are set between pilasters carrying cornices with semi-circular panels or "lunettes" above, all of bronze, a material which permits much enrichment without creating an effect of undue display. The doors themselves are six inches thick, and are each paneled with twenty-seven small coffers having richly ornamented mouldings with rosettes of alternating design set in them. At the intersections of the rails and stiles separating the panels project ornamental bosses, and a large ring or pull is set at a convenient height above the threshold, in each door, depending from a scroll issuing from one of the rosettes. In the panels of the pilasters are inverted torches of mortuary significance. The inner side of each door is treated with three very shallow panels studded around the edges with ornamental bosses at intervals. The inner lunette is treated with a large bas-relief trophy composed of architectural conventions representing Peace, Plenty, War, the Symbols of Government, and Groups of Flags. The outer lunette, like the statue, is the work of Mr. Niehaus, and represents the Victories of Peace. The Republic, typified by a seated female figure with the aegis on her breast, extends with both hands an ample cloak, expressing her protection of all that is worthy in her domain. On her right, War, personified by a youth, lays at her feet, his sword and shield wreathed about with laurel. On her left another youth submits the products of Industry. As a. background a tree of laurel spreads its leaves, and in the whole composition the sculptor has sought to express the flowering and fruition of Peace. The prototypes of the mausoleum should be sought in the ancient world, where was developed from the rude, conical mound of earth, of earlier times, heaped over the bodies of the slain, such tombs as that of Ceclia Metella on the Appian Way and Hadrian's Tomb now known as the Castle of San Angelo. This process of development is not without interest. The earthen mound becoming eroded from various causes, it became the custom to protect its base with a rough wall of stone. In the course of time this wall was given more and more importance and received the dignity of an architectural treatment. The conical mound of earth diminished in importance in relation to the wall. In Hadrian's Tomb, which was of vast size, it was planted with trees to the summit. In later times, in the Byzantine epoch, we find a further development of the type in the domical tomb of Theodoric. Between this monument and the McKinley Mausoleum is an unbridged gap of 1,500 years. It has been stated that the circular form was chosen as best adapted to the 224 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY original shape of the hill on which it was to stand. A further reason was the feeling that a reversion to the type above described, as being unmistakably a tomb form, was distinctly desirable ; and again, a circular structure presents the same aspect and proportions from whatever angle it may be viewed. THE BUILDING OF THE MEMORIAL The architect of the memorial, Harold V. Magonigle, has fully described the progress of the work and the details of the great memorial, as finally completed. He says that the architect was selected by the association in October, 1904 ; that the coming winter was occupied in the preparation of the working drawings and specifications, and on May 31, 1905, a contract for the mausoleum, the circular platform, steps and plaza masonry, was entered into with the Harrison Granite Company of New York ; for the bronze work, with the Gorham Manufacturing Company of New York City and Providence, Rhode Island. On the 6th of June following he himself removed the first spadeful of earth from the exact center of the mausoleum. The work of actual excavation began July 20th, by November the foundations were all in place, and on the 16th of that month, 1905, the corner stone was laid, in the presence of Mrs. McKinley, the immediate members of her family and Justice Day. In the fall of 1906 the association secured the services of George B. Sudworth, chief of the forestry division of the department of agriculture, to inspect the existing trees and make recommendations as to their proper preservation and as to the best varieties to plant when the time should come to finish the landscape architecture. Messrs. Wadley & Smythe, the well known landscape contractors of New York, were awarded the execution of the work, and began operations in February of 1907, placing their superintendent, Charles Anderson, in local charge and transplanting from nearby farms to the hill behind the mausoleum, to fill out and enlarge the existing grove, forty-two medium maples and elms. In May, 1907, the entire work of grading, both rough and finished, was turned over to Mr. Smythe to push to completion by September, with the planting. At this time the grounds were in a very rough condition, the grading far from being completed, but little finished grading done, and no roads built. Matters improved immediately, and the landscape began to take on a more finished aspect. In June sodding began, and on the 18th of that month the first grass was sown, and cut two weeks later. On dedication day the association's guests were received in a finished park of twenty-six acres, lawns, trees and shrubs producing the impression of long establishment and growth, when, as a matter of HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 225 fact, but six months had elapsed from the time the first tree was planted on bare, rough ground. Mr. Smythe interpreted the architect's suggestions with rare, artistic judgment and skill. Sugar maples had been selected as shade trees for the approach roads, and 350 large specimens, of a nearly uniform caliper of six inches, and eighteen to twenty feet high, were delivered and planted, those not needed for the "mall" being planted elsewhere on the grounds to replace any that might fail there. Several carloads of rhododendrons were massed on the terrace on the north side of the plaza, and in other large groups at the Linden Avenue entrance and southeast of the plaza. Composed with the rhododendrons on the terraces large cedars give accent and character, their vertical columns of almost black foliage repeating and supporting the upright mass of the adjacent statue and pedestal. Other evergreens of varied species, including retinosporas and some splendid specimens of the blue spruce, complete these distinguished groups. At the foot of the east and west steps the circular path is enlarged, and the space defined by low, broad hedges of privet. Groups of evergreens and of Lombardy poplars are planted here. The northerly arm of the cross is also enclosed by privet hedges. Along the westerly and southerly boundaries of the property plantations of poplars, planes and masses of shrubs were established in accordance with the original plan. The landscape thus created has unusual distinction both in the modeling of the ground surfaces and in the planting. It is dignified and simple, and the effects are produced entirely by broad masses of varied tones of green near the principal axis, flowering shrubs and trees with colored foliage being confined to the boundary lines. This, of course, refers to the effect in spring and summer. In the autumn the maples along the mall show magnificent masses of rich color ; the flowering shrubs have passed their time of blooming, and the color effect is exactly reversed. All these subtleties of composition combine to produce an effect upon the observer which he may not be able to analyze, but cannot fail to feel. On the afternoon of the day of dedication, September 30, 1907, the architect turned the key in the door of the mausoleum, twenty-four days less than three years after the date of the award of the competition, exactly two years and four months from the date of the principal contracts, and two years, three months and eleven days from the day when actual work began, an unusual record in point of time, combined with quality in execution, for a work of this character and magnitude. Nine states of the Union contributed material for the memorial. Ohio, McKinley's own state, supplied material for the concrete, all of Vol. 1-15 226 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY the brick and much of the labor. Massachusetts provided the exterior granite ; Tennessee the marble walls and pedestal and part of the marble floor ; New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont the balance. From Vermont also came the sarcophagi, and Wisconsin was drawn upon for their base and for the granite slabs in the floor. The skylight was made in Illinois, and the bronze cast in Rhode Island. Men of many nationalities and races were employed upon it, and a negro from a distant southern state traveled all the way to Canton to ask for employment because he admired and loved McKinley. DEDICATION OF THE MEMORIAL The dedicatory program was arranged by a co-operation between the citizens of Canton and the Memorial Association, and on the 19th of June, 1907, the chairman of the committee, George B. Cortelyou, reported the order of exercises for the assigned day, September 30th of that year. It was as follows, and was carried out as planned : Meeting called to order by Hon. William R. Day, president of the McKinley National Memorial Association, and introduction of Hon. A. L. Harris, governor of Ohio, as president of the day. Invocation, Rev. Frank M. Bristol, D. D., pastor Metropoltian Methodist Episcopal Church, Washington, District of Columbia. Opening address by the president of the day. "Star Spangled Banner," by the Grand Army Band of Canton, the Canton Singers' Club and the entire assemblage, E. Reinkendorff, conductor. Address, "The Building of the Memorial," by the president of the association. Unveiling of bronze statue of William McKinley by Miss Helen McKinley. Poem, James Whitcomb Riley. Oration, by the President of the United States. "America," by the Grand Army Band of Canton, the Canton Singers' Club, and the entire assemblage. Benediction, the Rt. Rev. Ignatius F. Horstmann, D. D., bishop of Cleveland. While the earlier indications did not promise perfect weather, the clouds that caused some apprehension for a time, gradually broke as if in sympathy with the sentiment that was predominant beneath them, and before the program was well inaugurated the whole great nature play was proceeding not only with marvelous precision and beauty, but set in the splendor of a perfect day. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 227 President Roosevelt and his associates arrived in Canton at 10 o'clock in the morning. They were welcomed by a party consisting of Justice Day and George B. Cortelyou, secretary of the treasury, on the part of the Memorial Association, and, as representatives of the Canton Citizens' Committee, its chairman, the Hon. Arthur R. Turnbull, the chairman of its reception committee, Hon. Julius Whiting, Jr., together with Josiah Hartzell, W. R. Timken and George H. Clark of that committee. With a brilliant escort this party was driven to the reviewing stand through a mass of humanity so compact that thoroughfare was only preserved by the rigid discipline maintained by a cordon of soldiers on either side of the route pursued. This journey to the stand was so disposed that the party was driven past the Canton High School Building, and here the citizens' committee had arranged one of the most beautiful of the picturesque effects that made their work notable. A stand had been built on the school lot to so accommodate the children, about 1,500 in number, and by appropriate costuming the whole formed a huge, live American flag. The effect was one of great human beauty, and at the approach of the President's party, when the banner broke into harmony, singing the national hymn, the clear young voices gave thrilling life to the picture. The President arrived at the review stand shortly before 11 o'clock, and presently the head of the procession appeared. During the hour that followed, this rostrum was a place of intense interest. Out at the rail in front, and looking directly into the faces of the marching men stood President Roosevelt, with Governor Harris and Mayor Turnbull on either side. There they received and returned the greetings of each organization as it filed by ; while in the rear, and earnestly joining in the proceedings, was a party that included many of the most distinguished men of the nation and representatives of other governments. The work of the Citizens' Committee, headed by Mayor Arthur R. Turnbull, was accomplished smoothly and efficiently, notwithstanding the unprecedented crowd which was handled. The grand review of the organized bodies which participated in the memorial ceremonies was in command of Maj. Gen. Charles Dick, commanding the Ohio troops, who was chief marshal, and Lieut. Col. Harry Frease, assistant marshal. It must suffice to say that the procession, which was divided into two divisions and six brigades, was one of the finest tributes to the memory of a public man imaginable, comprising, as it did, representations of every leading body in the State of Ohio, of a military, patriotic or social (secret and benevolent) nature, as well as from many others of neighboring states: and from national organizations. The parade was formed in column of sections (or platoons) of twelve 228 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY files each, closed to half distance, and started south on Market Street from the McKinley home at the corner of Louis Avenue, promptly at 10 :45 o'clock A. M. The head of the column reached the reviewing stand, between Tuscarawas and Seventh streets, at 11 :00 o'clock A. M., and the parade was there reviewed by the President and his party. At 12 o'clock all were escorted from the reviewing stand to the Canton Auditorium, where they were served with luncheon. The order of the program was next carried out in the gathering of the immense crowd at Mausoleum Hill, where the formal dedicatory exercises were to occur. The speakers' platform was at the base of the grand stairway leading to the mausoleum and in the shadow of the great bronze statue of McKinley. In the rear of this platform, ranged on the stairway and rising toward the statue, were seats for the several hundred invited guests of the official party, and higher up were the accommodations for the Grand Army Band and the Canton Singers' Club. Facing the stand and covering the broad plaza was a great range of elevated seats to accommodate a crowd of 3,000, while directly facing the speakers' stand were chairs provided for the veterans of McKinley 's regiment, the Twenty-third Ohio, and the Gate City Guards of Atlanta, Georgia. The official party, including the speakers of the day, arrived from the Auditorium at 2 o'clock. GOVERNOR HARRIS SPEAKS At the time named, Justice Day arose and introduced Gov. A. C. Harris as the president of the day. The governor at once introduced Dr. Frank M. Bristol, pastor of the Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Church, of Washington, District of Columbia, under whose ministry Mr. McKinley had so long worshipped, who delivered the invocation. After his impressive prayer Governor Harris made the opening address, from which the following is extracted : "It was my fortune to have been associated with McKinley in state affairs, as it was that of Justice Day as a neighbor, of President Roosevelt in national affairs, and of other members of the McKinley Memorial Association in other capacities. All who knew him loved and admired him. He was worthy of their fullest confidence and equal to any emerggency in either private or public life. "I am not here to speak of him as a devoted husband, a sincere Christian, a brave soldier, a true gentleman, or a comprehensive statesman. That is the mission of one who is worthy of the great subject and equal to it in all that can be said of William McKinley. As we are to hear from one of the most distinguished sons of New York about our HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 229 illustrious son of Ohio, I wish to point briefly to presidents from these two great commonwealths, to those men of Ohio and of New York who planted still higher the standard that had been upheld by those noble Americans in the succession from Washington to Lincoln. "Almost forty years ago, a native of Ohio, General Ulysses S. Grant, became President of the United States. Two days hence the State officers and others from different parts of Ohio will participate in the dedication of a tablet that is to mark the birth-place of that hero of the Civil War, in Clermont County, Ohio. General Grant's last residence was in New York and his tomb there will forever be the mecca of the Metropolis. "Ever since the inauguration of Grant the destinies of this Nation have been in the hands of rulers from one or the other of the great States of Ohio and New York. The administrations of Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, Harrison, McKinley and Roosevelt cover one-third of the period of our history as a Nation. "Of the eight presidents in that period five were natives of Ohio, and they had all been soldiers in the Civil War. They were the only Civil War veterans who reached the Presidency. The last in that eminent line of Union soldiers to be honored with the highest office in the gift of the people was McKinley, one of the purest and noblest Americans of them all. McKinley had been a pupil of Grant, Hayes, Garfield and Harrison in war and in peace, and he added fresh laurels to the crowns of his elder comrades." After Governor Harris' address the Grand Army Band and the Singers' Club, which had so often honored McKinley at his home comings, rendered the Star Stangled Banner, re-enforced by the great audience. Then came Justice Day's address and the remainder of the program, as given. Thus was completed with profound impressiveness one of the most beautiful and fitting memorials which the American people have ever bestowed upon their great, beloved and worthy sons. JUSTICE WILLIAM R. DAY The professional acquaintance formed between William McKinley and William R. Day during the four years that they practiced at Canton as young attorneys blossomed into a close personal friendship which strengthened, ripened and endured until the life of the elder was wickedly extinguished. In many respects their temperaments were similar, especially in their common love for thoroughness, temperance and peace, if it could be maintained with humanity and justice. The present associate justice of the United States Supreme Court 230 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY was born in Ravenna, Ohio, on the 17th of April, 1849, and, had McKinley lived, Mr. Day would be a little more than six years younger than his good friend, the President. His father, Hon. Luther Day, was a capable trial lawyer, who long practiced at the Ohio bar, and was afterward elevated to the supreme bench of the state, while his mother was the granddaughter of Chief Justice Swift of Connecticut, and the daughter of Judge Spalding, also of the Ohio Supreme Court. If the son takes after his mother, which is the generally accepted theory of inheritance, then the mental proclivities of Justice Day are readily explained ; particularly as there was everything in his father's mental traits and judicial aptitude to further stimulate his inheritance from his mother. It is certain that from the time he graduated from the literary department of the University of Michigan, in 1870, he had no thought but to prepare himself for the profession of the law. Mr. Day's preparatory studies were prosecuted under George F. Robinson, of Ravenna, and in the law department of the Michigan University. He was admitted to the Ohio bar July 5, 1872, and soon thereafter settled at Canton as the partner of the late William A. Lynch, under the firm name of Lynch & Day. Mr. Lynch was at that time in full general practice and was also the prosecuting attorney of Stark County, so that there was an open field for the persistency and solid talents of the young lawyer. By the late '80s Mr. Day had acquired such a standing at the bar that he was repeatedly urged to accept judicial honors, but various obstacles prevented him at that period from following his professional bent. For about a year, in 1886-87, he served as judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the Ninth Circuit, but resigned because, as he frankly stated, he "found it impossible to live upon the salary and make proper provision for his family." In 1889 he was appointed district judge for the northern district of Ohio, a territory in which he was recognized as one of the strongest lawyers in practice, and, although he desired to accept that honor, he declined it because of a threatened break in his health. With the exception of his brief service on the bench of the Common Pleas, Mr. Day continued in practice, with his headquarters at Canton, from 1872 to 1897, and then commenced the period of his public career. That period has been described with such discrimination and interest in the Alumnus, or periodical organ of the University of Michigan, that an extract is taken bearing on the matter : "Justice Day's notable services began with his appointment as assistant secretary of state in April, 1897. Up to that time he was practically unknown in Washington, or by the public at large. But even before this appointment he was an influence in public affairs, for to him the President frequently turned HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 231 for advice upon the many new and important questions with which he was confronted. And to render aid in this quiet and modest way, rather than through the holding of official place, was his desire. For him the social life of Washington had no charm. It has been said that he avoided it as eagerly as many men seek it. But it early became apparent that Secretary Sherman, by reason of age and disabilities, was unequal to the diplomatic emergencies that were developing. He had surrendered his seat in the Senate to accept the State portfolio, and, under the circumstances, it was not probable that his resignation would be forthcoming in the near future. A strong man was needed as assistant secretary, a man of discrimination, judgment, courage ; a man who, though occupying a subordinate rank, would be capable of performing the duties of secretary to the satisfaction of the country and in a way that would not wound the feelings of his superior. The situation called for a man of extraordinary ability and extraordinary tact. In his tried and trusted lawyer, friend and associate, the President knew that he would find such a man. The only appeal that could reach him and induce him to assume the responsibilities of public office was one based on personal friendship and public duty, and to this Justice Day yielded. The step involved not only great pecuniary sacrifice and the risk of impaired health, but also the chance of failure, for the field was to him an untried one. That he accepted under the circumstances shows the stuff that is in the man." Of Justice Day's unusual services in this connection, the Review of Reviews of September, 1898, thus speaks : "For one year as assistant secretary he performed the duties of secretary of state, except those ceremonial functions which the secretary of state could perform, and attendance upon Cabinet meetings, which became purely ceremonial on the part of the secretary, Assistant Day going over the State Department business with the President before or after Cabinet meetings. It was hard to do this clay after day without offending the nominal secretary of state, or impairing the dignity of that venerable stateman's position. But Mr. Day showed by his manner, as he did with his work, that he was a natural diplomat in the best sense of the word, and he preserved to the end the courteous fiction which the circumstances demanded. Everybody who had serious business with the State Department went to Assistant Secretary Day, because that was the way to get it done ; but none of his callers ever heard him put into words what they all recognized as the extraordinary and unprecedented situation of the department. If they had any considerable conversation with him they discovered that they were dealing with a singularly strong and silent man. They found that he never said too much or too little for his purpose, that he was 232 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY absolutely truthful and straightforward, and that he spoke with unusual clearness and cogency and candor, but above all with the most discreet reticence and perfect. self-possession. In Washington, where every official secret is open and the `executive sessions' only emphasize the fact, the new man 's ability to keep his own counsel and that of the President, whose representative he was as well, deepened the impression of power which was conveyed by what he did say, and helped on the idea, soon generally accepted, that he would be able to cope with any circumstance and with any antagonist." To continue the sketch of Justice Day's public services as a leading figure of the McKinley administration requires another quotation from the Michigan University Alumnus, that institution having conferred the title of LL. D. upon its distinguished graduate in 1898: "In May, 1898, Justice Day became secretary of state. At that time the country did not know, as it now knows, that the promotion involved for him little change so far as duties and responsibilities were concerned. It has been said that 'it really involved nothing more than moving from one room into the next, drawing a larger salary and attending formal cabinet meetings and occasions of ceremony.' He brought to his duties the mental habits of the thoroughly trained lawyer. In this public capacity he served the country with the same faithfulness and devotion that had characterized him in the service of his clients. No man could have a higher standard than was his. The brief period of his service demanded prompt action, almost daily, upon grave questions of international importance, and in every instance he proved himself equal to the emergency. The mental grasp, the judgment, the discrimination and the discretion of the man are apparent when we remember that he had to meet the grave responsibilities of his office without previous training in public affairs and without diplomatic experience ; and his straight-forward and genuine character is manifested in the conditions upon which he accepted the trust—that Professor John Bassett Moore, a Democrat in politics, should be appointed assistant secretary because of his acknowledged attainments in international law. Justice Day's most conspicuous and masterly service as secretary was undoubtedly rendered in the negotiations connected with Spain's request for our terms of peace. His determination and prompt action brought to an end difficulties that under the jurisdiction of a weaker man would undoubtedly have resulted in prolonged diplomatic correspondence, if not in more serious results. The remarkable tribute paid to Justice Day by President McKinley when speaking of his services in the State Department : 'Judge Day has made absolutely no mistakes,' was undoubtedly well merited. "With the closing of hostilities, Justice Day felt that he might HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 233 honorably retire from the State Department. To this President McKinley reluctantly consented, upon condition that he should go upon the Peace Commission appointed to negotiate the Paris treaty with Spain. This appointment was in line with the diplomatic work in which he had been so successfully engaged and was generally recognized as .most appropriate. The dignified and effective part that he took in the Paris negotiations contributed largely to the success of the commission. The framing and signing of the treaty of peace having been accomplished, the time had come when Justice Day could return to his professional work. He had aided the President during the most critical and trying period of his administration and he had given to his country the best service that it was in his power to render. Notwithstanding his success in the difficult role of secretary and diplomat, he always regarded his services in this field as temporary and felt that his life work should be in his profession. An opportunity that was in the direct line of his ambition came to him in February, 1899, when he was appointed United States circuit judge for the Sixth judicial circuit. His eminent fitness for service upon the Federal bench was at once apparent, and it very soon became a foregone conclusion that his promotion to the Supreme bench would not be long in following." This came in February, 1903, since which time the prophecies as to his fitness for the discharge of the highest judicial duties which can be imposed by the nation have been verified. To simply mention the name of Justice Day carries a full conviction of judicial weight, solidity and rectitude. Both President McKinley and Justice Day married daughters of Canton pioneers. Justice Day 's wife was Mary E. Schaefer, daughter of Louis Schaefer, the lawyer and citizen of public spirit and many works beneficial to Canton and Stark County, and President McKinley's wife was the daughter of James A. Saxton, who was born in Canton in 1812 and became well known as one of its prominent business men and founder of the Stark County Bank. Through their wives, who were both born in Canton, this history has therefore an additional reason for claiming, as peculiarly home material, both the McKinleys and the Days. GEORGE H. WALLACE Five months before the assassination and death of President McKinley, one of his old friends and among the most prominent of his tariff co-laborers died of consumption in New Mexico, where he had resided for four years as secretary of the territory. George H. Wallace was one of McKinley's most valued advisers in the elaboration of the system of protection in which he was the most prominent figure for so 234 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY many years. Originally a great wool state, Ohio public men who were advocates of that system naturally devoted much of their attention to the sheep industries in their relation to high tariff. This remark applies with special point to Congressman McKinley and Mr. Wallace, while the former was perfecting his tariff bill and Mr. Wallace was in conference with him as secretary of the National Wool Growers' Association and one of the foremost experts in the United States regarding all matters connected with sheep and wool. The steps through which they thus came together may be briefly described. The first Wallaces who came into the West were the grandfather and granduncle of George H., who, as young surveyors, went from New Hampshire into the Western Reserve in 1795 and finally located on the present site of Cleveland. The father, Dr. Perkins Wallace, was horn near that city, but was educated in Cincinnati, married a daughter of William Raynolds at the old Canton homestead on South Market Street, and after residing for about a dozen years at Massillon and Akron, returned to Canton in 1847 and practiced there until his death in 1868. In 1842, while Doctor and Mrs. Wallace were residents of Akron, George H. was born. They spent a few years in Massillon before finally locating at Canton, to reside in the old homestead built by Captain Fisk for his daughter, the mother of Mrs. Wallace. Young Wallace was educated in the public schools of Canton, in the organization of which his father had taken an active and a leading part. He became a favorite pupil of Miss Betsy Cowles, a graduate of Oberlin College and a well known educator in Northern Ohio. Both to her and to his father he always attributed his early awakened interest in mathematics and in public affairs. His uncle also, Gen. W. F. Raynolds, of the United States engineers, took a deep interest both in his intellectual and physical welfare, while his own mother is known to have been quite an accomplished mathematician. In May, 1859, General Raynolds was placed in command of an expedition for the exploration of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers, and George H., then in his seventeenth year, was made a member of it. His duty was to make astronomical observations and to calculate latitude and longitude and, in the parlance of today, he "liked his job." It was also hoped that his out-of-door work would strengthen his delicate constitution. That hope was realized. From a slender lad of scarcely more than 100 pounds, he returned to Canton, at the end of eighteen months, weighing 160 pounds. The father 's joy is said to have been expressed in the exclamation, at first beholding him, "Thank God, he is big !" The scientific results of the expedition, among the members of which was the famous Professor Hayden of the Smithsonian Institution, HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 235 were soon buried under the avalanche of events which sprung from the War of the Rebellion. When the Civil war begun, Mr. Wallace was pursuing special studies in a Cleveland institution, but at once applied for service and was assigned, at different times, to hospital duties and to the oversight of a division of military telegraphs connected with the Army of the Cumberland. After the war he engaged in mercantile pursuits in Delaware and Nebraska, and in 1868 was summoned home by the last illness of his father. His mother died two years afterward. Two years after his marriage to Miss Catherine A. Patten, niece and ward of Thomas McCullough, Mr. Wallace bought a plantation in Howard County, Missouri, and engaged in sheep raising and wool growing. He was soon in the thick of republican politics, and in 1888 was nominated for lieutenant-governor. His election followed after an exciting and wearing campaign, which for a time brought him to the verge of collapse. As president of the Missouri Wool Growers' Association, his already well-defined views on high tariff and protection found a broad and influential medium of propagation, and his energy and ability made that organization one of the most active in the country. Through his efforts in enlisting the interest of the citizens of St. Louis and the members of the Cotton and Wool Growers' Exchange, the Wool Growers' First National Convention and Sheep Shearing were held in that city in 1886. Among the speakers were Columbus Delano, ex-secretary of the interior, as president, and General Sherman, and delegates were in attendance from New England, the northern states, from the West and Southwest, and from old Mexico. As secretary of the National Wool Growers' Association, Mr. Wallace spent the winter of 1889-90 in Washington, working with Columbus Delano and Judge Lawrence in the formation of Schedule K of the McKinley Tariff Bill. His appointment as consul general to Australasia, with headquarters at Melbourne, was delayed until the last week of May, when the measure had passed the House of Representatives, and after he had left Washington he was called back to work for its passage through the Senate ; so that he did not sail from San Francisco until early in the fall. In August, 1890, he sailed for Melbourne, and traveled through the Australasian colonies on consular business until he was recalled by the incoming Cleveland administration. He returned by way of the Orient, Egypt, Italy, Switzerland, France and England, spending the greater part of a year in the completion of his journey around the world. Mr. Wallace spent the winter of 1895-96 at Las Vegas and the following winter at Santa Fe, New Mexico. He organized the New Mexico Wool Growers' Association, and in April, 1897, was called to Washington 236 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY to forward protection through the Dingley Tariff Bill. Early in June President McKinley appointed him secretary of New Mexico Territory, and his death occurred at Santa Fe, April 13, 1901, while engaged in the discharge of the duties connected with that office and in the furtherance of the public policies in which he so honestly believed and which he so earnestly supported. In spite of his uncertain health during the greater portion of his life, Mr. Wallace was always bright, cheerful, sympathetic and industrious. His entire nature was delicate and finely wrought. and it was quite wonderful that it did not sooner wear away under the stress of the numerous activities to which it was subjected. DR. THOMAS C. MENDENHALL For about ten years, covering a portion of his boyhood, all of his youth and the dawn of his manhood, Thomas C. Mendenhall, a scientist and scholar now known in two hemispheres, was a resident of Stark County, the groundwork of his learning and of his training as an educator having been laid in Marlboro Township. He was born in Hanoverton, Ohio, on the 4th of October, 1841, and in reply to a letter of inquiry from the author, who enjoys the honor of his friendship, writes as follows regarding the period of his identification with Stark County history: "When I was ten or eleven years of age my father removed from Hanover township, Columbiana county, where I was born, to Marlboro, Stark county. This village was then, and had been for several years, widely known for the excellence of its public schools, and it was for the purpose of giving his children the benefit of the advantages there offered that he changed his residence. The excellence of the schools at that time was due to the fact that the inhabitants of the village were for the most part of Quaker descent or 'profession' and greatly interested in the improvement of educational facilities. During a half dozen years preceding the year 1855 the 'Marlboro Union School' drew students from all parts of the state of Ohio, and from several other states. The pupils in the High School coming from outside of the village were often twice as many as the permanent population of the village. It rivaled in number of students, as also in the character of instruction given and the extent of its curriculum, Mt. Union College, which was just then beginning its life. Marlboro had many more students than Mt. Union, and the work done was equally advanced in character and in some instances more thorough and exacting than at the College. All of this was changed, however, by the development of railways, which left Marlboro in a relatively inaccessible location and since 1855 the schools have not differed much from those of similar isolated, small villages. I was a pupil of the HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 237 Marlboro High School from 1852 to 1857-58, though during much of the latter year I was an assistant teacher (aged 17) in the school. "During the winter of 1859-60 I taught in the village of New Baltimore (also in Marlboro township), and in the year following I had charge of the secondary, or grammar school, at Marlboro, and at the same time I taught some of the mathematical classes in the High School. The next year-1861—I was elected to the principalship of the Marlboro schools— while still in my teens—and served as such for one year. In the summer of 1862 I was called to a position in the High School at Salem, also in Columbiana county, and I was never afterward, except temporarily, a resident of Stark county." Doctor Mendenhall is recognized as one of the leading physicists in the country, as a teacher, an investigator and an author. He held the chair of physics and mechanics at the Ohio State University from 1873 to 1878, during which period he received his degree of Hon. Ph. D. During the succeeding three years he was professor of physics at the Imperial University of Japan, and in 1884 was honored with an emeritus professorship on the faculty of the Ohio State University. He was professor of the United States Signal Corps in 1884-86 and president of Rose Polytechnic Institute, Terre Haute, Indiana (which granted him a Sc. D. degree), from 1886 to 1889. In 1887 the University of Michigan also made him an LL. D., and the Western Reserve University repeated the honor in 1912. The five years from 1889 to 1894, Doctor Mendenhall spent as superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey and superintendent of weights and measures of the United States Lighthouse Board ; that time might not hang heavy he also served during that period as a member of the first Behring Sea Commission, in 1891, and of the United States and Great Britain Boundary Line Survey Commission in 1892-94, as well as a United States delegate to the International Electrical Congress in 1893. During all these periods of activity he had become identified with numerous learned societies in the United States and Europe and had been especially prominent in the proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of which he had been general secretary in 1876, vice president in 1882 and president in 1889. From 1894 to 1901 he was president of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute ; also chairman of the Massachusetts Highway Commission, 1896-1901. While thus employed in Massachusetts, Professor Mendenhall was obliged to relinquish all work on account of a failure in health. In the fall of that year he went to Europe where he suffered for many months with a serious illness. During the succeeding ten years, through foreign treatment and travel, which extended to India, China and Japan, he regained his health in 238 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY large measure. In Japan he renewed old associations, and a few acquaintances, formed while he was professor of physics in the Imperial University of Japan thirty years before. At that time he was decorated with the order of The Sacred Treasures (second class), a high Japanese honor, and also received a gold medal from the National Educational Society of Japan. The doctor is a member of numerous geographical, scientific and philosophical societies and the author of "A Century of Electricity." Since his return from his second trip to Japan, about three years ago, he has lived quietly at Ravenna, Ohio, and, as stated in one of his letters, has "renewed his interest in Marlboro and Stark county and made some effort to collect the more important facts and incidents relating to the small village in which he spent much of his youth." PHILANDER C. KNOX Philander C. Knox, who was attorney general in the McKinley Cabinet of 1901 and during the last year of the President's life, as well as for a few months under Roosevelt, graduated from Mount Union College in 1872, but returned immediately to his native Pennsylvania, which thereafter claimed the credit of mothering him as a public man. Before being appointed to the cabinet he had served as United States district attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania and resigned his seat in the United States Senate in 1907 to become secretary of state under Taft. CHARLES F. MANDERSON AND LYMAN U. HUMPHREY Of an earlier generation and more closely connected with the history of Stark County, were Charles F. Manderson and Lyman U. Humphrey, both, as noted, soldiers of the Civil war who joined the Union forces as residents of Canton. They both enlisted as privates, Mr. Humphrey being less than eighteen years of age at the time, and Mr. Manderson, in his twenty-fifth year. The latter rose to be brevet brigadier general of volunteers, while Mr. Humphrey left the service as a first lieutenant ; but both made records of bravery and soldierly faithfulness. General Manderson was wounded severely at Lovejoy's Station while leading three brigades, and in March, 1865, was brevetted for "gallant, long continued and meritorious services during the Civil War." A few years after the war the lines of their lives separated, General Manderson making a fine record as a public man of Nebraska, and Lieutenant Humphrey, of Kansas. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 239 Charles F. Manderson was born in Philadelphia, February 9, 1837, and graduated from the high school of that city in 1856. The same year he located at Canton to study law and was admitted to the bar in 1859. In 1860 he was elected city solicitor and was in office when he went into the army. His wound at Lovejoy 's Station was so severe that he resigned from the service in September, 1864, and, after recuperating for some time resumed practice. Although twice elected district attorney, he preferred a professional field in what was then the far West, and in November, 1869, moved to Omaha, Nebraska, the brisk frontier town on the bluffs of the Missouri. General Manderson soon became a republican leader. He served as a member of the state constitutional conventions of 1871-74, was city attorney of Omaha for six years, and held a seat in the Senate of the United States from 1883 to 1895. During that period he was president pro tem. for four years. On retiring he returned to Omaha and soon after was appointed general solicitor of the Burlington system of railroads west of the Missouri River. That responsible position he retained until his death in 1911. In his profession, especially during the later years of his career, General Manderson was considered one of the great corporation lawyers of the country, serving as president of the American Bar Association in 18981901. Lyman U. Humphrey was born in Stark County, July 25, 1844, and after the Civil war attended Mount Union College and the University of Michigan. In 1868 he was admitted to the bar and moved to Independence, Kansas. He served in both branches of the Kansas Legislature, as a republican leader, and was successively elected lieutenant governor in 1877 and 1879. In 1888 he was elected governor by over 72,000 majority and in 1890 renominated by acclamation at the Republican State Convention. He served another term, closing his first term by becoming the father of Labor Day, which is now so generally observed throughout the United States. In fact, Stark County gave to Kansas a fine man in the person of Governor Humphrey. JOSEPH MEDILL, FOUNDER OF THE GREATER TRIBUNE Joseph Medill, the founder of the Chicago Tribune as a great newspaper, was. a resident of Stark County from his ninth to his twenty-sixth year. He was born in New Brunswick, Canada, April 6, 1823, and was taken by his father to a farm near Massillon, where he spent his boyhood. As a youth and young man, he studied law and practiced in that town, but his inclinations and his genius lay in another field. In 1849 Mr. Medill founded a Free Soil paper at Coshocton, Eastern Ohio, 240 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY and in 1852 established the Cleveland Leader. In 1854 he became one of the organizers of the republican party in Ohio, and in the following year joined the Chicago Tribune. Mr. Medi11 laid the basis of its fame, and from that day to this, either he, or some of his kin, has been active in its advancement to the front ranks of cosmopolitan journalism. Mr. Medi11 died at San Antonio, Texas, March 16, 1899, when his stock in the Tribune Publishing Company was valued at $2,500,000 ; the remainder of his fortune, nearly as much more, was in bonds and realty ; even more to the point, he had become one of the foremost newspaper men in the United States, if not in the world, which was some advancement from the raw country boy of the Stark County farm, or even the struggling young lawyer and editor of Massillon and Coshocton ! ISAAC R. SHERWOOD Isaac R. Sherwood is another character of broad reputation in several strenuous fields, but whose fame has mainly been earned in Ohio, and as a congressman from the Ninth (Toledo) District. He spent a decade in Canton, 1888-98, as editor of the News-Democrat, and he brought experience and life to that paper. He was born in Stanford, New York, August 13, 1835, and in 1856 commenced the study of law at the Ohio Law College, Cleveland, but in the following year located at Bryan, Ohio, as editor and publisher of the Williams County Gazette. He received his professional degree, LL. B., from the Ohio Law College in 1859, entered practice and continued his newspaper enterprise. On April 16, 1861, the day following President Lincoln's first call for volunteers, he left the office of probate judge and the Williams County Gazette to enlist in the Fourteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He reached the rank of brevet brigadier general and was mustered out of the service at Cleveland, July 15, 1865. Previous to his terms as secretary of state, 1869-73, he conducted the Toledo Commercial and was on the editorial staff of the Cleveland Leader ; was congressman from the Sixth Ohio District in 1873-5 ; editor of the Toledo Journal from 1874 to 1883 ; probate judge in 1878-84, and, as stated, editor of the News-Democrat from 1888 to 1898, inclusive. He then returned to Toledo, and served in the congresses from the Sixtieth to the Sixty-third, inclusive (1907-15), as a representative of the Ninth Ohio District. JOHN H KLIPPART John H. Klippart, for nearly twenty-two years secretary of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture, was horn in Stark County in 1823. He died HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 241 in 1878, when but fifty-five years of age, and no man in state service has done so much to educate the farmers to a realizing sense of the importance and dignity of their profession-for such it has come to be realized. Mr. Klippart's opportunities for education were limited, but with German persistency and concentration he mastered the knowledge which he could use, and at the outset of his career clearly drew the lines which limited his work. In 1856, while assistant editor of the Ohio Farmer, he was elected corresponding secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, which term faintly expresses the scope and multitude of his duties. At the meeting of the board, although usually some member acting as recording secretary made a minute of the business transacted, these records were arranged by Mr. Klippart for publication in the annual reports. All the reports from county societies were placed in his charge and by him arranged and sent to press. Preparations for leach state fair were made by the board as a body, or by its executive committee, but a large share of the work unavoidably fell upon the secretary. Members of the board, without compensation, gave as much of their time as was possible to these matters, but the secretary, as the only salaried officer, shouldered the burden of the details. Mr. Klippart, of course, managed the routine of the office during the year, answered numerous letters and adjusted all differences which did not require the united action of the board. In addition to performing such duties pertaining directly to his office, Mr. Klippart wrote essays on various agricultural topics of interest and practical value to the farmers of the state, many of which required extensive research ; he also translated many of the best articles from French and German periodicals. Two especially elaborate treatises emanated from his pen—one on the Wheat Plant and the other on Drainage-which were first published in the annual reports of the board and afterward in book form. In 1860 Governor Dennison appointed Mr. Klippart one of the board of commissioners to proceed to the Atlantic seaboard for the purpose of examining and reporting on the pleuro-pneumonia of cattle, which was then creating consternation among the stockmen of the country. In 1865 he visited Europe, making an extended tour and an able report upon the various agricultural institutions which he visited. In 1869 Governor Hayes appointed him one of the assistant geologists for the State Survey, and in 1873 Governor Noyes selected him as a member of the board of commissioners to take measures for restocking the waters of the state with edible fish. He also represented the state at the Centennial Exposition held at Philadelphia in 1876. In the reports resulting from these special missions and the literature which collected through Vol. I —16 242 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY his long connection with the State Board of Agriculture, as well as through his private labors as a tireless investigator of agricultural conditions and progress everywhere, Mr. Klippart embodied an invaluable mass of information in the official publications of the board. Before his death, October 24, 1878, twenty-one volumes had been issued, virtually the result of his investigations and labors ; looking back upon his ceaseless industry, his friends came to realize that his death was caused by undue zeal and over-work. EARLY CONGRESSMEN FROM STARK COUNTY In closing this chapter devoted to some of the best known characters, whose lines have been cast at various periods within the territory and among the activities of Stark County and whose fame has often spread far afield, the writer will notice several of those who have represented its people in the popular house of Congress, and he will acknowledge, at the outset, that he is largely indebted for the sketches to the writings of the late Dr. Lew Slusser. MATHIAS SHEPLER Mathias Shepler, an honest member of the United Brethren Church, and, since youth, a farmer of Bethlehem Township, was the congressman of 1830, representing Wayne and Stark counties, or the Eighteenth District. He was purely a home product, and felt himself quite out of place as a figure in the halls of Congress. Mr. Shepler had been a justice of the peace for thirty years; had served as county commissioner for two terms; as house representative in the State Legislature twice ; as state senator four times; had been a member of the State Board of Equalization ; was an erect, courteous, fine-looking man, but ill-adapted to the niceties and artifices of national politics and politicians. He was not a public speaker ; as a member of the Committee on Public Expenditures, he soon discovered that he had not the knowledge of national affairs necessary to effectively discharge the duties of his office, as he conceived them, and altogether he concluded that he had undertaken a task for which he had not the qualifications. Squire Shepler was so honest and outspoken that he begged his friends and supporters to be allowed to resign at the expiration of the first session, but he was prevailed upon to remain, although he peremptorily declined re-election. DAVID A. STARKWEATHER AS A PUBLIC MAN David A. Starkweather, who succeeded Mr. Shepler, was a college man from the East, who had been practicing law in Canton for several HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 243 years and was the equal of the best. His voice was sweet, his gestures graceful, his wit ready and his language elastic. He was strong of intellect, as noted for his fox-hunting as for his eloquence and his polish; an able gentleman, well set-up, whether one considered his body or his mind. Mr. Starkweather was assigned to the Committee on Roads and Canals the first session, and to Invalid Pensions, the second. "He was much interested in the treatment received by the Indians at the hands of the Government," says his biographer, "and made several speeches in their behalf which were highly commended. He was exceptionally popular with members of both political parties and exercised much influence over them. A number of years ago the writer was on a visit to Georgia, and while there called upon General Toombs, who was a member of Congress at the same time. He inquired particularly about Mr. Starkweather, and spoke of him in eulogistic terms as a man of ability and integrity, though they were of opposite politics. Mr. Starkweather's second term in Congress expired during the administration of President Pierce, by whom he was appointed minister to Chile, a position held through the succeeding administration." Mr. Starkweather was four times elected a member of the State Legislature, three times to the House and once to the Senate, serving in these capacities from 1833 to 1838. He was an able, adaptable and versatile man, and earned high standing both as a lawyer and a public character. He died of paralysis at the home of his. daughter, Mrs. Brinsmade, in Cleveland, July 12, 1876, aged seventy-four years. GENERAL SAMUEL LAHM Less than a month before Mr. Starkweather's death at Cleveland, Gen. Samuel Lahm, who had long shared his popularity both in politics and the law, passed away at his home in Canton. He was of an old Maryland family, but graduated from Washington College, Pennsylvania, the alma mater of James G. Blaine, of national fame, and Judge Henry A. Wise, one of the strong characters figuring in this Stark County history. After completing his legal studies at Hagerstown, in his native county, and at Canton, whither he came in 1834, Mr. Lahm commenced practice, and his talents and popularity were soon in evidence. At the trial of one of his first cases a witness was called to testify. The clerk of the court propounded the usual question, "How do you swear ?" meaning "Do you swear or affirm ?" To which the witness promptly and heartily replied, "I swear for Sam Lahm." Sam Lahm was twice elected prosecuting attorney of Stark County, serving 244 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY from 1837 to 1841. As Mr. Lahm had a taste and a talent for military matters, he was elected brigadier general of the state militia ; hence the title by which he was ever afterward known. The General served in the Thirty-third Congress, 1854-55, having been a member of the State Senate for two terms. JUSTICE D. K. CARTTER David K. Cartter, who served two terms in Congress as a representative from Stark County, and some years afterward assisted in the formation of the republican party, was minister to Bolivia and chief justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, was an unusual instance of worldly success despite many drawbacks of disposition and physique. But, although bearing a homely pock-marked face, carrying a loud, coarse voice and being rough and often offensively rude in manner, the evident force and decision of his character bore down the opposition of the timid and compelled the attention and admiration of the strong. Judge Cartter had a marked impediment in his speech, which is said to have been both an aggravation to the members of the bench and bar with whom he had dealings, and yet a weapon which he turned to his own advantage, as he was often able to fully impress his points upon both when he might have fallen short had. he been of smoother and more rapid speech. Judge Cartter was born near Rochester, New York, and in his youth was an apprentice in the printing office of the famous Thurlow Weed. After struggling for an academic and legal education, and obtaining it, he settled in Akron for the practice of law, and, in partnership with Alvah Hand. and George Bliss, obtained quite a reputation there before he located at Massillon. That was in 1845. It is said that he moved into Stark County with the express purpose of realizing his congressional ambition, which he found impossible as a resident of Summit County. He was a democrat and the congressional district composed of Wayne and Stark counties was designated the Gibraltar of Democracy. So when he settled at Massillon and formed a partnership with H. B. Hurlbert he promptly entered county politics, sent every shaft and thunderbolt at his command into the ranks of the whigs, spoke at conventions, made friends in spite of his abrupt manners (shot, here and there, with a redeeming humor), and in 1848 received the coveted nomination for Congress. His whig opponent was Samuel Hemphill, a Wooster lawyer, but Cartter was elected by over 1,000 majority, and re-elected in 1850 by about the same majority. His opponent at the second election was John Brown of Wayne County. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 245 On the organization of the republican party in 1854-55, Mr. Cartter united with it, as did not a few other democrats, and in 1860 was a delegate at the Chicago Convention which nominated Lincoln. He is one of many who has claimed the honor of advancing the homely Illinois man into the halls of fame. At all events, he had some claim upon the administration, as soon after Lincoln's induction into office Mr. Cartter was appointed minister to Bolivia. But he soon resigned, came back to Massillon and asked for something more congenial on home soil. He was then appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia and while upon that bench, especially during the troublous period of the Civil war, his services were of the greatest national value; for, although not a deep legal student or a profound judge, he had rare practical sense and an instinct for grasping the salient points of any contention which was brought before him. During that period of his life and the later years of his practice, his brusqueness and coarseness both of language and manner wore off to some extent, and it became more and more evident that he regretted such constitutional defects. While brusque and at times even arbitrary upon the bench, Judge Cartter was quick to see and enjoy the humorous side of any feature in a case brought before him. For instance, Mrs. Belva Lockwood, who was practicing at the time at the Washington bar, appeared in court with a party whom she wanted to offer as surety on an appeal bond, and it was necessary that he be approved by the Court. The surety offer was a typical Virginia darky of the old school, wearing an old silk hat, an ancient dress coat with brass buttons, and what was once a white vest. In that garb he appeared before Justice Cartter, hat in hand. The Court eyed him studiously and then blurted out, "Well, uncle, what 's the condition of your earthly possessions ?" Having been sworn, the colored gentleman solemnly testified that he owned a certain well known piece of real estate, unincumbered, and Cartter having deferentially listened to his statement, said impressively, "Well, you'll do, uncle. If you can show as good spiritual assets on judgment day, you'll be well off." He approved the bond, and uncle withdrew triumphant from the court room, amidst general applause. Judge Cartter died April 16, 1887, and it is said left a considerable estate. BENJAMIN F. LEITER Benjamin F. Leiter, who served in the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth congresses (1856-59), never received more than a common school education in his Maryland home, and when a young man became a 246 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY member of his uncle's household near Canton. He was employed by that relative, Jacob Myers, about his mills, but was studious, at the same time, and began to indulge in country school teaching. Mr. Leiter was bright, hearty and accommodating—what we would call "a good mixer"-and became so well known and liked that when the Canton free school system went into effect he was the first teacher engaged by the board. While thus engaged Mr. Leiter was elected township clerk and also justice of the peace, holding the latter office for three successive terms. During that period he commenced the study of law under David A. Starkweather and on his admission to the bar formed a partnership with George W. Belden. While showing no marked ability as an advocate, he was industrious and attentive to business, as well as active and popular in democratic politics. He also added to his influence by purchasing the Stark County Democrat, in partnership with Ed Carney. They continued the connection for about a year. Mr. Leiter served two terms in the State House of Representatives, commencing with 1848, and was speaker of that body during the last session. In 1850 he was defeated for the State Senate, but bided his time for a congressional career. It is not greatly to Mr. Leiter's credit that he finally rode into Congress, in 1856, on the crest of the frothy wave of know-nothingism, his majority being more than 3,700 out of a total vote of less than 14,000. Mr. Leiter went to Congress as a republican representative, and so satisfied his constituents that he was renominated for the Thirty-fifth Congress by the district convention of this party and re-elected over the strong, popular and able General Lahm. During his entire service he was a member of the committee on Indian affairs, and, although neither eloquent nor prominent in Congress, had the reputation of looking closely after the practical needs of his district, which, after all, should be the main consideration in weighing the usefulness of a congressional representative. Mr. Leiter died June 17, 1866. ATLEE POMERENE Atlee Pomerene, United States senator from Ohio since January, 1911, was born at Berlin, Holmes County, Ohio, December 6, 1863, the son of Dr. Peter P. and Elizabeth (Wise) Pomerene. He graduated from Princeton in 1884, from which he obtained an A. M. degree in 1887, and from the Cincinnati Law School in 1886. Mount Union College conferred LL. D. upon him in 1913. Admitted to the bar in 1886, he practiced at Canton continuously until he was elected lieutenant- governor in November, 1910. He had previously served as city solicitor HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 247 and prosecuting attorney of Stark County, and during the year of his election to the lieutenant-governorship served as chairman of the Democratic State Convention. His term as United States senator expires in 1917. Despite his brief service in the higher house of Congress his scholarly and solid attainments have already been recognized through his identification, especially with the reformation of the banking laws and the proposed upbuilding of a national merchant marine in keeping with the cosmopolitan status of the United States. ROBERT P. SKINNER Robert P. Skinner, of Massillon, was promoted to be consul general at London in 1914. He had previously been successively consul general at Marseilles, Hamburg and Berlin, having been in the consular service for eighteen years. He is a native of Massillon, born February 24, 1866, the son of Augustus and Cecelia (Van Rensselaer) Skinner. His wife was before her marriage Miss Helen Wales, daughter of Arvine Wales, of Spring Hill, near Massillon, and a prominent resident of Stark County. Until his first consular appointment he was owner and editor of the Massillon Independent. In 1903 Mr. Skinner was sent to Abyssinia by the United States Government to negotiate a treaty between this country and Ethiopia. In 1912 he was sent to London by his Gov-, ernment as a special commissioner detailed to assist other governments in adjusting the claims of the creditors of the Republic of Liberia in Great Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands. He is a member of the Society of the Felibrige of France. In November, 1915, Mr. Skinner was called from London to Washington to aid the State Department in the adjustment of various trade matters complicated by the European war. He returned to London the same month.