William McKinley was the third of four US Presidents to be assassinated. He was shot by an anarchist named Leon Czolgosz (note to self: if you ever have the urge to assassinate a president in order to be remembered in the history books, make sure you have a pronounceable name) while at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Though his wounds were not immediately fatal (he lived 8 days longer), the doctors were unable to locate the bullet that had lodged in his body, and it got infected, killing him. Ironically, not far from where McKinley was shot at the exposition (but unbeknownst to him and his doctors), a group of scientists was demonstrating a new invention, the X-Ray machine, which could have perhaps found the elusive bullet. Czolgosz was executed by electrocution.

McKinley was buried temporarily at Westlawn Cemetery in Canton, Ohio, near the home he lived in after he was married. 6 years after his death, in 1907, the massive McKinley Memorial in Canton was completed. Because of its location (not in a cemetery like Lincoln’s or in a city like Grant’s), McKinley’s memorial is probably the most imposing presidential gravesite. It is at the top of a large hill and is huge! I am slightly humored when I see his uninteresting, invalid wife Ida’s grave next to his, thinking how she sure got a lot of attention just for marrying right. No doubt she would have been forgotten in some corner of a cemetery if memorialized on her own merits.

interesting post


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