President William McKinley, 25th U.S. President, ‘woven into the fabric of Canton’

CANTON, Ohio (WOIO) - Eight U.S. presidents have called Ohio home, but perhaps none is as revered as President William McKinley.

“McKinley is really kind of woven into the fabric of Canton,” said Kim Kenney, executive director of the McKinley Presidential Library and Museum.

Born in Niles outside Youngstown in 1843, McKinley settled in Canton as a young man after serving in the Civil War.

“It’s where he met the love of his life, it is where he became an attorney, where he ran all of his campaigns,” said Kenney. “He had a front porch campaign to run for President in 1896 so seven-hundred and fifty thousand people came to Canton in 1896 during August to October.”

From that front porch, McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan in 1896 and during his first term, McKinley helped the U.S. overcome a severe economic recession and oversaw the rise of the United States as a global power, acquiring territories Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Philippines. McKinley also helped set U.S. foreign policy for the 20th and 21st centuries.

“One of the things people don’t think about is the Spanish-American War; it was a very short war but that happened during McKinley’s Administration,” said Kenney. “We emerged on the world stage as a global power (and) we have territories for the first time.”

McKinley won a second term in 1900, again defeating Bryan, and he bridged the gap between the 19th and 20th centuries. He started his first term as an advocate for tariffs but, at the beginning of his second term, his views started changing.

“He started to understand that free trade and individual free trade agreements with countries made more sense,” said Kenney. “I believe that’s where he was going when he was shot.”

William McKinley never made it back home to Canton. An assassin’s bullet ended his life at the Pan‑American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, on Sept. 6, 1901, six months into his second term as president. But his legacy lives on.

“He put public service first,” Kenney said. “He was a congressman, a Stark County prosecutor, governor, and a president. He spent his entire life in service of the American people and he died doing that.”

Shot twice by anarchist Leon Czolgosz, he died eight days later. Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him as president, taking over but never replacing McKinley.

“McKinley is very integral to this community,” Kenney said. “We always say he’s Canton’s favorite son.”