William McKinley Monument

William McKinley was born at Niles in Trumbull County, Ohio, on January Twenty-Ninth, Eighteen Hundred and Forty-Three. He served as a volunteer soldier in the Rebellion, was a representative in Congress, twice governor of Ohio, and twice president of the United States. He died at Buffalo, New York, on September Fourteenth, Nineteen Hundred and One. Realizing that his hour had come, his mind turned to his maker, and he whispered feebly, “Nearer my God to Thee,” the words of the hymn always dear to his heart; then, as the final summons came, he faintly murmured, “Goodbye all, Goodbye it is God’s way – his will be done not ours.” On the afternoon of October Fifth, Nineteen Hundred and One, Anno Domini, twenty six thousand people of Toledo and Lucas County, whose names are preserved within this monument, voluntarily contributed to the fund for its construction. He was remembered as having made the country better and greater, and his career was held to show the possibilities of American citizenship; for all time and for all peoples, his name would stand for the sanctity of the individual, the home, and the nation.

Toledo, Ohio · United States