Monday, September 12, 2011

President McKinley dies of gunshot wounds, Sept. 14, 1901


William McKinley, the 25th U.S. president, died Sept. 14, 1901, eight days after being shot by an anarchist at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
             “President McKinley died at 2:15 o’clock a.m.,” announced the very precise article in The Anaconda Standard of Anaconda, Mont., that morning. “He had been unconscious since 7:50 p.m. His last conscious hour on earth was spent with the wife to whom he devoted a lifetime of care. He died unattended by a minister of the gospel, but his last words were a humble submission to the will of the God in whom he believed.”

Read more about McKinley’s assassination

The Sept. 13, 1901, Pella Chronicle of Pella, Iowa, described the shooting, McKinley’s injuries, and would-be assassin Leon Czolgosz’ remorseless confession to the crime. SHOT BY AN ASSASSIN
The words to McKinley’s favorite hymn and a sketch of his coffin appeared in the Sept. 25, 1901, coverage of his funeral in the Herald of Eldora, Iowa. FAREWELL TO MARTYR DEAD