Ida Saxton McKinley
Portrait, c. 1900
First Lady of the United States
In role
March 4, 1897 – September 14, 1901
PresidentWilliam McKinley
Preceded byFrances Cleveland
Succeeded byEdith Roosevelt
First Lady of Ohio
In role
January 11, 1892 – January 13, 1896
GovernorWilliam McKinley
Preceded byMaud Campbell
Succeeded byEllen Bushnell
Personal details
Born
Ida Saxton

(1847-06-08)June 8, 1847
Canton, Ohio, U.S.
DiedMay 26, 1907(1907-05-26) (aged 59)
Canton, Ohio, U.S.
Resting placeMcKinley National Memorial
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1871; died 1901)​
Children2
EducationBrooke Hall Seminary
Signature

Ida McKinley (née Saxton; June 8, 1847 – May 26, 1907) was the first lady of the United States from 1897 until 1901, as the wife of President William McKinley. McKinley also served as the First Lady of Ohio from 1892 to 1896 while her husband was Governor of Ohio.

Born to a successful Ohio family, Ida met her future husband and later married him during the early Reconstruction years. She never recovered from losing their daughters as children and remained in a fragile state of health for the rest of her life, including having seizures. During campaigns and while in office, her husband took great care to accommodate her needs, as they were a devoted couple. Ida's ability to fulfill the role of First Lady was nevertheless limited. She was brought further grief by the deaths of her brother and later her husband, as McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist. Ida devotedly visited her husband's resting place daily until her own death.

Early life and marriage

Ida Saxton was born in Canton, Ohio, the eldest child of James Saxton, a prominent Canton banker, and Katherine "Kate" DeWalt. Saxton's family was one of Canton's first pioneer families and the family was quite wealthy. By becoming a banker, James Saxton became the second richest man in Canton. He and Kate DeWalt raised Ida and her younger siblings, Mary and George, in the grand Saxton House. Little is known about Saxton's early childhood.[1] Saxton developed close lifelong relationships to her mother and her grandmother, Christiana DeWalt. This likely influenced Saxton's later belief that close intergenerational family connections were a key part of a woman's life.[2] During the American Civil War, Saxton's mother led a volunteer effort to gather supplies and sew uniforms for the Union Army. When Saxton was on break from boarding school, she would help her mother with these tasks.[3]

Education

Saxton's parents strongly believed in abolitionism and equal education for women.[4] James Saxton was on the board of trustees of Canton's local public schools and enlisted Betsy Mix Cowles, a prominent abolitionist and suffragette, as the principal of Canton Union School. Cowles became a close mentor to Saxton while she was a student there. From 1862 to 1863, Saxton studied at Delphi Academy in Clinton County, New York, as Cowles had moved to teach there. Delphi Academy was Saxton's first boarding school experience and she learned accounting and finance there. However, both Cowles and Saxton left Delphi Academy due to its Confederate sympathies. Saxton later studied at the Sanford School in Cleveland, Ohio from 1863 to 1865.[3][5] At all the schools she attended, Saxton excelled in her studies, being called "an apt learner" and "gifted as a scholar".[6]

Saxton attended finishing school at Brooke Hall Female Seminary from 1865 to 1868. There, she was educated in singing, piano playing, linguistics, and fine needle point, skills that would prepare her to become the household hostess. When she had time off, Saxton would travel to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to attend opera performances, classical music concerts, or theatric plays. Saxton made many long-lasting friendships with fellow students and teachers at Brooke Hall Female Seminary, befriending teacher Harriet Gault.[3] Gault believed that women should be physically active, a progressive idea for the time, inspiring Saxton to take long walks each day to improve her physical fitness.[3][7]

Early career and trip to Europe

After graduating from finishing school in 1868, Saxton's father insisted that she become an actress to help raise funds for building a new Presbyterian church. That March, Saxton performed at Schaefer's Opera House, posing in tableaus which depicted various scenes from American and European history. Her performance was well-attended, as about twelve hundred people flocked to the opera house and named Saxton "best actress".[8] Saxton also worked as a clerk at Stark County Bank, the bank her father owned.[9] Saxton quickly climbed the ranks, becoming a cashier and managing the bank while her father was traveling.[3][4] Her role in the bank was controversial and her male colleagues believed that she had received an "over-education". However, Saxton defended her position at the bank, believing her father wanted her to support herself without getting married.[9] Excluding the time she spent on Grand Tour, Saxton worked at Stark County Bank until she married William McKinley in 1871. While Saxton was not working or traveling, she taught Sunday school at the First Presbyterian Church, the same church her grandfather John Saxton helped establish.[3]

From June to December 1869, Ida Saxton and her younger sister Mary took a Grand Tour of Europe chaperoned by Janette Alexander, using the trip as an opportunity to finish their education.[4][3][10] The group travelled throughout Europe, among the countries they explored were Ireland, Scotland, England, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy. On the trip, Ida and Mary emphasized frugality, as the trip cost about two thousand US dollars.[lower-alpha 1][11] Alexander claimed that the cost came from travel expenses and her brother's budget management services. Saxton insisted that she sould manage the finances for the entire group herself, thus reducing expenses.[12] The sisters could only carry one small bag, limiting the amount of souvenirs they could bring home. However, Saxton still brought souvenirs for her Sunday school students.[11] On the trip, Ida Saxton developed her skills converting different national currencies and navigating fluctuating exchange rates while on Grand Tour.[3] Saxton visited many art museums and met Vinnie Ream, the sculptor who would become famous for making an Abraham Lincoln statue, in Paris.[11][3] Saxton also met a limbless painter named Charles Felir in Amsterdam who painted with his mouth.[13] According to the National First Ladies' Library, "[The artist's] example seems to have inspired her to later insist on living a full public life despite disabilities she developed [later in life]."[3] When the group was in Italy, Alexander arranged for Ida and Mary to meet Pope Pius IX. Although Saxton disliked Roman Catholicism because she thought that "the form and ceremony was too much", she "bowed before [the Pope] and kissed his hand" because she thought he was "such a nice old man".[13] While she was not studying, Saxton also went to the theater to see plays.[11] Ida and Mary continued the habit of hiking daily to maintain physical health, hiking throughout the Swiss Alps.[7][4] Saxton's travels also influenced her social outlook and made her aware of her privileged position, as she witnessed working-class women perform physical labor for little pay. One such example was when she travelled to Belgium and saw a lace workers create handmade lace in poor conditions. Saxton decided to purchase a lot of their work to support the lace workers and spent her entire life developing a collection of Belgian lace.[4][3]

Marriage

While Saxton was working at Stark County Bank, she met William McKinley for the first time in 1868 at a picnic Meyers Lake, Ohio, about two miles away from Canton.[3] McKinley was visiting his sister Anna when he developed an acquaintance with Saxton.[14] At this time, Saxton was engaged to Confederate Army veteran John Wright. John Wright suddenly died of brain inflammation on September 2, 1869 (most likely meningitis) while Ida was in Europe, leaving her devastated.[15][3] After her Grand Tour, Ida was approached by many suitors, but she did not take their offers of love seriously and only casually flirted with them.[16] In 1870, however, Saxton started seriously courting McKinley after he introduced her to Horace Greeley at a lecture. At this time, Saxton was courting other men but was impressed by his moral character.[3] The two often conversed while performing bank transactions, at friends' homes, or while traveling to teach Sunday school at Saxton's Presbyterian church and McKinley's Methodist church.[17] McKinley also represented the Saxton family in court, winning claims for them. Although Saxton's father encouraged her to court McKinley, Saxton asserted that she was not influenced by her father to accept McKinley's marriage proposal.[3] On January 25, 1871, Ida Saxton, aged 23, married William McKinley, aged 27, at the newly built First Presbyterian Church in Canton in a joint Methodist-Presbyterian service.[3] The service was attended by one thousand people, as Ida was considered the belle of Canton.[17] Following the wedding, performed by the Reverend E. Buckingham and the Reverend Dr. Endsley, the couple attended a reception at the home of the bride's parents and then secretly travelled to New York for their honeymoon.[18]

Illness

Possessed of a fragile, nervous temperament due to the loss of her mother and two young daughters within a short span of time, Mrs. McKinley broke down. She developed epilepsy and became totally dependent on her husband. Her seizures at times occurred in public; she had one at McKinley's inaugural ball as Governor of Ohio. Although she battled her illness for the rest of her life, she kept busy with her hobby, crocheting slippers, making gifts of literally thousands of pairs to friends, acquaintances and charities, which would auction pairs for large sums. For her condition, she often took barbiturates, laudanum, and other common sedatives of the time.[19]

Children

The McKinleys had two daughters. Both died in childhood. They were Katherine "Katie" McKinley (1871–1875) and Ida McKinley (April–August 1873).

Katherine McKinley

The portrait of Katie that hung on the wall of the McKinley house.

Katie was born on Christmas Day 1871, while her father was still a Canton lawyer. She was adored by her parents, being the center of their universe[20] and the apple of William's eye. In return, she adored him.[21] She was smothered with love by Ida until a second daughter was born in the spring of 1873. Due to the fact that Ida's mother died some two weeks before the birth, the infant, also named Ida, was born following a very difficult delivery, and she died four months later.[20][21]

Ida was grief-stricken, and she believed that God punished her by killing her daughter.[20][22] She was deeply affected by this, developed phlebitis and epilepsy, and desperately feared the loss of her first-born child.[22] She demanded that William and Katie shower her with displays of love and affection. Ida spent hours a day in a darkened room with Katie in her arms, kissing her and weeping. William's brother, Abner, once found Katie swinging on a gate of the garden of her house and invited her to go for a walk with him. The child replied that "if [she] would go out of the yard, God would punish [her] mama some more".[20]

In June 1875, Katie became ill with typhoid fever and died within days. She was initially interred in Canton's West Lawn Cemetery, but, on October 10, 1907, both Katie and her younger sister Ida were exhumed and re-interred in the north wall of the McKinley National Memorial. On the same day, the bodies of Ida and William were re-interred in the same place.

First Lady of the United States

Ida McKinley in an official photograph as First Lady

President McKinley took great care to accommodate her condition. In a break with tradition, he insisted that his wife be seated next to him at state dinners rather than at the other end of the table. At receiving lines, she alone remained seated. Many of the social chores normally assumed by the First Lady fell to Mrs. Jennie Tuttle Hobart, wife of Vice President Garret Hobart. Guests noted that whenever Mrs. McKinley was about to undergo a seizure, the President would gently place a napkin or handkerchief over her face to conceal her contorted features. When it passed, he would remove it and resume whatever he was doing as if nothing had happened.[19]

The President's patient devotion and loving attention was the talk of the capital. "President McKinley has made it pretty hard for the rest of us husbands here in Washington," remarked Senator Mark Hanna.

Ida Saxton McKinley, official White House portrait

The First Lady often traveled with the President. Mrs. McKinley traveled to California with the President in May 1901, but became so ill in San Francisco[23] that the planned tour of the Northwest was cancelled.[24] She was also with him on the trip to Buffalo, New York in September of that year when he was assassinated but was not present at the shooting. On September 6, 1901, President McKinley was shot in the stomach by a 28-year-old anarchist named Leon Czolgosz. Doctors were unable to locate the bullet. The President's wound eventually became infected with gangrene.[25][26] He died eight days after the shooting, aged 58.[27]

Later life and death

The tomb of William and Ida McKinley

With the assassination of her husband by Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, New York in September 1901, Mrs. McKinley lost much of her will to live. Although she bore up well in the days between the shooting and the president's death, she could not bring herself to attend his funeral. Her health eroded as she withdrew to the safety of her home and memories in Canton. She was cared for by her younger sister. The President was interred at the Werts Receiving Vault at West Lawn Cemetery until his memorial was built. Ida visited daily until her own death.[28] She survived the president by less than six years, dying on May 26, 1907, aged 59.[29] She was buried next to him and their two deceased daughters in Canton's McKinley Memorial Mausoleum.[30]

Murder of brother George Saxton

Three years before the assassination of her husband, Ida's only brother, well-known bachelor playboy George DeWalt Saxton (1850–1898), was murdered; Ida wept at his graveside.

Dressmaker Mrs. Anna "Annie" E. Ehrhart George was accused, then tried 2–24 April 1899.

Following nine years of wooing Mrs. George, and six more years indulging in their scandalous affair, Saxton had then requested and financed his lover's divorce from her husband, Sample C. George—who had, in 1892, sued Saxton in the Supreme Court for alienation of affections, settling for $1,850 plus legal costs (after quietly remarrying Lucy Graham)[31]—but George Saxton later spurned his conquest. Failing to successfully sue Saxton for breach of promise; the former Mrs. George was accused of fatally shooting him as he approached the home of another woman—an act she had repeatedly threatened.

Neither the Saxtons nor the McKinley family attended the trial. The media championed her case; Mrs. George claimed self-defense and was acquitted of first-degree murder by a jury. No one else was ever charged with the crime.[32][33] Mrs. George later married Dr. Arthur Cornelius Ridout, reputedly a drunk and a gambler, whose death by hanging from a chandelier was ruled a suicide.[34][35]

Legacy

The Saxton House, former home of Ida Saxton McKinley, now part of the First Ladies National Historic Site.

Ida's childhood home, the Saxton House, has been preserved on Market Avenue in Canton. In addition to growing up in the house, she and her husband also lived there from 1878 to 1891, the period during which the future President McKinley served as one of Ohio's Congressional Representatives. The house was restored to its Victorian splendor and became part of the First Ladies National Historic Site at its dedication in 1998.[36]

Notes

  1. ↑ about $47,000 in 2024

References

  1. ↑ Watson, p. 167.
  2. ↑ Anthony 2013, p. 3.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "First Lady Biography: Ida McKinley". National First Ladies' Library. Archived from the original on December 27, 2023. Retrieved December 26, 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Ida McKinley: Perseverance through Hardship". National Park Service. November 10, 2023. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
  5. ↑ Swain, p. 201; Watson, p. 169.
  6. ↑ Anthony 2013, p. 5.
  7. 1 2 Swain, p. 202.
  8. ↑ Watson, pp. 169–170; Gould, p. 184; Anthony 2013, p. 10.
  9. 1 2 Russo, p. 94.
  10. ↑ Gould, p. 184.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Watson, p. 169.
  12. ↑ Anthony 2013, p. 11.
  13. 1 2 Anthony 2013, p. 13.
  14. ↑ McClure & Morris 1901, p. 111.
  15. ↑ Watson, p. 169; Anthony 2013, p. 15.
  16. ↑ Gould, p. 185.
  17. 1 2 Watson, p. 170.
  18. ↑ Morgan, p. 37; Leech, p. 16.
  19. 1 2 Cook, Blanche Wiesen (1999). Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 2: 1933–1938. Viking. p. 17. ISBN 067080486X. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
  20. 1 2 3 4 Edge 2007, p. 33.
  21. 1 2 Quinn-Musgrove & Kanter 1995, p. 147.
  22. 1 2 Quinn-Musgrove & Kanter 1995, p. 148.
  23. ↑ "McKinley's Personal Secretary Thanks Mayor of San Francisco for Care First Lady and President Received". SMF Primary Source Documents. Shapell Manuscript Foundation. Archived from the original on 2014-12-27. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
  24. ↑ "Mrs. McKinley in a Critical Condition". The New York Times. May 16, 1901. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
  25. ↑ Leech, p. 600.
  26. ↑ Miller, pp. 318–319.
  27. ↑ Miller, pp. 321.
  28. ↑ Kenney, pp. 98.
  29. ↑ "Mrs. McKinley Rests Beside Her Husband : Her Last Words: "O! God, Why Should I Longer Wait? Let Me Lie Beside Him," Have Been Answered—Funeral Services Simple and Impressive, Many Distinguished Persons Present". The Sacramento Union. Vol. 113, no. 97. Sacramento, California. 30 May 1907. p. 1. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2020. [President Roosevelt said] President McKinley served his country as an American citizen should serve his country in war and in peace. But it was in his own home, perhaps, that in devotion to the loving woman we have just buried he gave the best example to us all.
  30. ↑ Allida Black. "Ida Saxton McKinley". The White House. Retrieved December 26, 2023.
  31. ↑ Turzillo, Jane Ann (2011). Wicked Women of Northeast Ohio. Arcadia Publishing. p. 65. ISBN 978-1609490263. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  32. ↑ Traxel, David (1998). 1898: The birth of the American Century. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 251. ISBN 0-679-77671-0. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  33. ↑ Shaffer, Dale E. (27 December 1994). "Playboy's Murder Stuns Ohioans" (PDF). Yesteryears; the Salem News (Insert). 4 (15). Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  34. ↑ "People". The National Tribune. Library of congress. 26 July 1906. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  35. ↑ "Husband of Mrs. George Takes Life". No. morning edition. Canton Morning News. 23 January 1906. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  36. ↑ "Saxton-McKinley House". National Park Service. April 16, 2021. Retrieved December 26, 2023.

Bibliography

  • Anthony, Carl Sferrazza (2013). Ida McKinley: The Turn-of-the-Centry First Lady through War, Assassination, and Secret Disability. The Kent State University Press. p. 376. ISBN 978-1-60635-152-9.
  • Quinn-Musgrove, Sandra L.; Kanter, Sanford (1995). America's royalty: all the presidents' children. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 286. ISBN 978-0-313-29535-5.
  • Edge, Laura Bufano (2007). William McKinley. Twenty-First Century Books. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-8225-1508-1.
  • Barden, Cindy (1996). Meet the First Ladies. Teaching & Learning Co. p. 140. ISBN 978-1-4291-1121-8.
  • Leech, Margaret (1959). In the Days of McKinley. New York: Harper and Brothers. OCLC 456809.
  • Miller, Scott (2011). The President and the Assassin. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6752-7.
  • Kenney, Kimberly A. (2004). Canton's West Lawn Cemetery. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-3309-4.
  • Watson, Robert P. (2015). American First Ladies. Ipswich, Massachusetts: Salem Press. ISBN 978-1-61925-942-3.
  • Swain, Susan (2015). First Ladies: Presidential Historians on the lives of 45 Iconic American Women. New York, New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-61039-566-3.
  • Russo, Amy (2021). Women of the White House: The Illustrated Story of the First Ladies of the United States of America. London, United Kingdom: Webleck. ISBN 978-1-78739-388-2.
  • McClure, Alexander K.; Morris, Charles (1901). The Authentic Life of William McKinley our Third Martyr President. Cornell University.
  • Morgan, H. Wayne (2003). William McKinley and His America (Revised ed.). The Kent State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87338-765-1.
  • Gould, Lewis L. (2001). American First Ladies: Their Lives and Legacy. New York, New York: Routeledge. ISBN 0-415-93021-9.
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