Name/Title
McKinley's boyhood and education article.Entry/Object ID
2016.2.17Scope and Content
This is an article describing William McKinley's boyhood and education from "The Nazirite."
McKinley's Boyhood and Education
The story of William McKinley as a successful fisherman, a skater, a blackberry picker, as a playmate and of the boy who "licked" him when he was eight years old, is one which makes every boy's and man's heart warm with memories of similar experiences.
Niles, Ohio was McKinley's birthplace. The house in which he was born has sometime in the past been cut in two, and the section which includes the room of his birth has been moved a mile away, to a pretty spot known to the people of NIles, as Riverside Park.
This half of the house has been newly sided and is occupied by James Maines and family. The house has been a victim of relic hunters. The room in which Mr. McKinley was born bears the marksof penknives on all sides. A chip from the woodwork, a piece of plaster -- anything has served as a memento to the sightseer, who has been happening this way for years.
Joe Fisher was for a long time the village constable, the truant officer and an old soldier, "There," said he, as he pointed the small end of his corn cob pipe to a red-colored building across the street, "is the old school in which "Bill" and I learned our A.B.C's." -- Bill is President now, but he hasn't forgotten Joe Fisher. I never asked him for an office, for I don't believe in that sort of thing, but if I ever happen to be where McKinley is he throws his arms around em and gives my hand such a shake as brings back the days where three of us boys were chums, Bill, Mr. Allison and myself. Greatness never spoiled the good President nor kept him aloof from his friends and neighbors."
The red building, referred to by Mr. Fisher as the school house, is now occupied by a marble and granite company, and is situated on the main street of the town.
Just to the rear of its present location once stood the blackberry bushes which Mr. McKinley, as a boy, used to visit with his companions, the blackberry pail suspended in front of them as a convenient height for picking. That section then was a sort of swamp. Today it is covered by the nice little homes of the laborers who work in the mills not far distant. "I declare I never thot Bill would be president," continued Joe Fisher. "Little did I suppose as I sat fishing with him on Mosquito Creek with our legs dangling over the edge of the bridge, or as we caught angleworms to bait our hooks that I was with a coming President," continued Joe Fisher. "I well remember his patience with the hook and line. The most of the boys would get disgusted at not getting a bite and go home, he would carry a string of fish while the rest of us had to be content with our baths. Somtimes we would all have good luck, and the strings of fish we would take home suspended from a pole across our shoulders would make the eyes of everyone we passed stick way out.
Next Week we will write of McKinley -- An Outstanding Mason.Collection
BlaneyAcquisition
Accession
2016.2.0Source or Donor
Eileen B. BlaneyAcquisition Method
Gift