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 This fanciful piece of artwork celebrating the birth of President William McKinley and the founding of his hometown of Niles, Ohio, is on display at the William McKinley Memorial.
In the last installment of my travelogue I told you about my visit to “Europe” in Ohio, as well as the “Steelworker” statue that I just happened to drive past on the way to my intended destination, the birthplace of William McKinley, our 25th president.
About a mile or so past the “Steelworker” I reached the McKinley memorial. The complex houses the McKinley Memorial Library, which also serves as a general purpose public library as well, albeit a fairly small one. Another building has an auditorium on the first floor and a museum dedicated to McKinley on the second. Connecting the two buildings is the Court of Honor, an open air, circular courtyard containing a statue of McKinley on a pedestal. Busts of members of McKinley’s cabinet, as well as several other close McKinley associates, line the circular perimeter.
The memorial was completed in 1917. After getting some pictures of the courtyard I went inside the library to find out where the museum was. A librarian walked me over to the auditorium, unlocked the door and directed me to a small corner where some chairs and a TV monitor and VCR were set up. She started the VCR for me and invited me to tour the second-floor museum at my convenience. The VCR played a brief, 10-minute video of the life of McKinley. I would have expected something a little more elaborate for one of our presidents.
I then ascended the steps to the museum, which contains a number of original McKinley possessions, including a family piano and a rocking chair. The museum is situated on a horseshoe-shaped balcony overlooking the first floor auditorium. The railing around the balcony seemed a bit too short for my taste and I avoided getting too close to it. Near the end of my self-guided tour I pressed a button that was supposed to activate a recording of McKinley speaking, but after several attempts it still did not come on.
After my tour I went back to the library to ask for directions to the actual birthplace. I had wanted to find a post office so that I could mail some postcards and, lo and behold, as I left the complex to walk the couple of blocks to the birthplace I saw a post office right across the street. I walked back to my car to get the postcards that I had bought at Steubenville. After mailing them I walked another block or so to the birthplace museum, which is housed in a building that was reconstructed on the spot where McKinley’s birth house once stood. I had to walk across the busy two-lane street to stand near the Dollar General store in order to get a couple of pictures of the house. The house museum was closed that day, so I had to content myself with just getting the pictures.
McKinley was born in the small city of Niles, Ohio, on January 29, 1843 to William and Nancy McKinley. He was the seventh of nine children. When the War Between the States broke out he enlisted in the 23rd Ohio, and served under another future president, Rutherford B. Hayes. By the end of the war he had risen to the rank of captain. He was the last of the Civil War presidents.
After the war, McKinley became a lawyer. In 1877, with the help of Hayes, who was president by this time, he was elected to Congress. He became governor of Ohio in 1891 and was reelected in 1893. In 1896 he was elected president and was reelected four years later.
McKinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz on September 5, 1901 and died nine days later. In an age before endless and unsufferable death penalty appeals, Czolgosz was found guilty and then executed by electric chair a month and a half later.
Although McKinley is not buried in his hometown, he is buried in his home state, in the city of Canton. In 1994 I passed through Canton and visited his tomb. Several dozen steps lead to a Jefferson Memorial-style monument which contains the tomb.
Niles was my last stop in Ohio. When I left town, I headed east toward Pennsylvania, where my next destination was Grove City, the home of Grove City College. The college is located a little over an hour north of Pittsburgh in the town of, you guessed it, Grove City.
While negotiating my way through town I found a building that bore the name of the college. I parked there, got out and walked around a bit. I soon determined that there had to be more to the college than what I saw. At about that time a man came out of the building and I asked him where the main campus was. He was an employee of the college and offered to let me follow him.
After reaching the main campus I walked around for a few minutes. The campus has somewhat of an Ivy League look to it, with large buildings fronting a large, rectangular grassy field. I was sure that what I could see was just a portion of the entire campus.
So, what is significant about this college that I took the time to visit it? For those who may remember, the college was the focus of a famous U.S. Supreme Court case in 1984. This was the Title 9 case, also known as Grove City College v. Bell. It dealt with requiring equal funding of women’s and men’s sports. Although Grove City won a partial victory in that case, legislation was passed in 1988 that required every educational institution receiving federal aid to comply with the regulatory requirements of Title IX. Instead of bowing to the tyranny of the federal government, the college ceased its participation in the government’s Stafford loan program and set up its own loan system with a private financier.
The college, which was founded by a Presbyterian in 1876, is a non-denominational institution that bases its instruction in the Judeo-Christian Western tradition. It is ranked very highly among conservative colleges.
Attendance at chapel services is required 16 times per semester. One curious thing that I noticed while researching this article, however, is that, even though alcohol is forbidden on campus, students at least 21 years of age are allowed to drink off campus.
After leaving the college I followed the signs for the Wendell August Forge. It is located on a dead-end street in a residential subdivision. It is not on a main road. Without good signage no one would ever find it.
The forge makes all kind of etched metal items, including plates, trays, bowls, vases, clocks, ornaments, figurines, bookmarks, et al. The building houses the forge as well as a gift shop where the items are sold. Visitors are encouraged to take a free, self-guided tour of the workshop.
As I walked along, I observed a couple of designers in their small offices working on new designs. Another workman operated some sort of machine that resembled and sounded like a pile driver. The machine had been loaded with a master template and each time the ‘pile driver’ came down it imprinted a plain metal plate with the design on the template.
After my brief tour I got back in the car and headed north, on a quest for “black gold, Texas tea.”
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(Next Installment - Birth of an Industry)
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