Name/Title
Ida Saxton McKinley, page 3.Entry/Object ID
2016.2.33cScope and Content
This is page three of three from 'Ida Saxton McKinley.'
...was in the White House, she knitted some thirty-five hundred pairs of slippers, which brought large sums when sold at church fairs and bazaars.
During her four and a half years in Washington, Mrs. McKinley was a observer of one of the greatest transitions periods in the history of the nation. She helped her husband plan the celebration of Centennial Day, December 12, 1900, the one hundredth anniversary of the opening of the White House in the days when Abigail Adams was presiding as First Lady. McKinley, however, will probably be remembered in history as the President who successfully conducted a war with Spain (after doing everything in his power to prevent it).
When her husband was elected for a second term, Ida McKinley was happy for him. There was little unemployment, the tariff had dropped out of sight as a bone of contention, gold had been discovered in Alaska, prospects for building the Panama Canal were growing brighter, and the United States had acquired Hawaii and the Philippines, The nation was prosperous.
Mrs. McKinley's health seemed to improve a little during that time. She was happy and cheerful as usual with her husband accepted an invitation to visit the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo. Together the President and his wife journeyed from Canton, Ohio, where they had been enjoying their summer vacation. They stopped to see the sights at Niagara Falls, then went to the home of friends in Buffalo. On the afternoon of September 6, 1901, while Mrs. McKinley rested, the President held a public reception at the Temple of Music, shaking hands with a long line of visitors. When he offered his hand in greeting to a slender young man, two shots rang out.
As the President fell to the floor, he pointed to Czolgoz, the assassin, who had already been seized by onlookers, and said: "Don't let them hurt him." Then he whispered to his secretary: "My wife -- be careful how you tell her -- oh, be careful!"
But all the care and gentleness in the world couldn't soften the blow for Ida McKinley when, several hours later, she learned of the shooting, The President died on September 14. His wife accompanied the body to Washington where it lay in state in the rotunda of the Capitol; then on to Canton, Ohio, her home. Throughout the long journeys, in the last coach of the special train, the frail little figure in black kept tender watch over her beloved dead.
Mrs. McKinley was almost always ill after that. Less than six years later, on May26, 1907, she died, and was laid to rest in Canton beside her husband and thier two little girls.Collection
BlaneyAcquisition
Accession
2016.2.0Source or Donor
Eileen B. BlaneyAcquisition Method
Gift