Ohio - Day 6 - Pres. McKinley/Canton

Streetsboro KOA
Monday, 6 May 2019

Killdeer

I saw a killdeer in the campground today.  I always think of them as shorebirds, and here we're not even all that close to Lake Erie, let alone the ocean.  Even this internet photo was taken at the shore.  Still I saw every single one of the markers the bird book says to look for, so that's definitely what it was. 

today's route

I'd already spent so much time in this area I was starting to feel like I'd miss half of Ohio if I didn't get moving.  But one thing I did want to do before moving to another part of the state was visit the McKinley Museum and National Memorial in Canton, south of Akron.  

Pro Football Hall of Fame

On the way south I passed the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  You can't really tell from this photo I got off the internet, but that projection that's clearly intended to look like a football looks instead just like a juicer.  You know, those things you smush an orange or lime or lemon on to get juice out of them.  This building is right on the interstate, except the building is completely overshadowed by that projection, which can be seen from quite a distance while driving by.  And all I could think about was "juicer."

Almost all the rest of this post is what I learned at the museum, so if you don't want to read history, skip to the end.  But it turned out to be pretty interesting.

Pres. William McKinley

close-up of memorial

Pres. McKinley has always seemed so remote to me that I was surprised to learn that he'd been extremely popular when he was president.  His death was mourned nationwide at least as much as Lincoln's had been.

McKinley National Memorial

His popularity accounts for the grandeur of this memorial that was built just after his death.  It's also a mausoleum - McKinley and his wife and two daughters are buried in there.

I also hadn't realized that he'd already served one full term and was 6 months into his second when he was assassinated.  And he didn't die from being shot, which he was - twice, but instead died from the gangrene that set in after the doctors had tried to remove the bullets.  In 1901, prevailing notions of hygiene were still a little underdeveloped.

McKinley was born and raised in central Ohio.  He was the last president to have served in the Civil War.  He was regular infantry and fought at South Mountain and, three days later, at Antietam (still the bloodiest day in US history, with 22,000+ casualties).  He was a member of the Canton Masonic Lodge. 

He was a gifted public speaker and was elected to 7 terms in Congress and 2 terms as Governor.  During his first term as president, the country enjoyed several years of good harvests, gold was discovered in Alaska, and the US won the Spanish-American War.  Surely unrelated, McKinley had a pet parrot named Washington Post. 

our 25th president

That war wasn't something McKinley wanted to be involved in, because of his ugly Civil War experiences.  But during the 1896 presidential campaign, all candidates expressed support for the Cubans who were revolting against Spanish rule; in 1898 McKinley sent the USS Maine to Cuba to check out some rumors and the ship was blown up in Havana Harbor, killing 266 Americans; there was such strong feeling against Spain that McKinley finally asked Congress if it wanted to authorize use of force.  And the US Navy fought so well that McKinley decided to go after Spain world-wide: Commodore Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay with no American casualties and we ended up with the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and Puerto Rico as well.

McKinley's vice president died during his first term, so in 1900 he added Theodore Roosevelt to the ticket, after TR had become a war hero with the Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War.  Their campaign slogan was: Four More Years and the Full Dinner Pail.  Which pretty well sums things up.  Oddly, in both elections McKinley beat William Jennings Bryan.

McKinley's 1897 inauguration was the first to be recorded on motion picture film.  For the 1901 inauguration parade he was encouraged to ride in a "horseless carriage" but refused because he thought it might stall in the middle of Pennsylvania Ave.

Six months later, he was shaking hands with the public at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo when an anarchist shot him with a small revolver he'd hidden behind a handkerchief - the man thought government had too much power and things would be a lot better if we had no government.

McKinley died 8 days later.  Robert Todd Lincoln witnessed in person the assassinations of his father, Pres. Garfield, and Pres. McKinley, and refused afterwards to be in a public space with any president.

As far as I can tell, McKinley doesn't deserve to be a nonentity among US presidents and it was sheer bad luck that he was succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt, whose middle name should have been "colorful."

Canton City Park
The McKinley memorial people have some kind of major grudge against dogs apparently, because all over the grounds and parking lot they have big signs saying "NO DOGS."  But I'd passed a city park on the way there, so after I toured things I took my critters down to the park where we walked along a pretty stream and ate lunch.

That park turned out to be popular and we're lucky we got there early.  It seemed to be a place for odd vehicles.  After we arrived we were joined by a 1951 grey Ford, a rusted '80s-era Mercury Marquis, and a '90s-era midnight blue Cadillac with "Cadillac Jack" written across the rear windshield and skulls&crossbones stuck on the rear bumper - but the driver wasn't some testosterone-addled young man but an old and grey man who shouldn't have had that much testosterone left in him.  Odd.
8u

I was taking this photo for the "Caution - No Skating" sign when Mrs. Mallard waddled into my picture.  Actually, she and her husband - who swam into view right after I took this - were probably hoping for a handout because she came pretty close to me.

The body of water we're not supposed to skate on is the West Branch of Nimishillen Creek and runs all the way through town, so I'm surprised it can ever freeze enough for people to even consider skating.

I didn't see a lot of Canton but liked what I saw.  McKinley apparently loved it and spent most of his life here.