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enterprises, and he soon acquired wealth. Mr. McKim had always been a lover of astronomical studies, and when he grew rich he purchased for his own use one of the best telescopes in the United States, and mounted it in an observatory that he built adjoining his residence. He also presented to the observatory of De Pauw university a complete astronomical outfit at a cost of over $10,000, and public charities and institutions of learning also benefited by his bequests.

McKINLEY, John, jurist, b. in Culpeper county, Va., 1 May, 1780 ; d. in Louisville, Ky., 19 July, 1852. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began to practise at Louisville. Ky., but subsequently removed to Huntsville, Ala., where he was chosen a member of the state house of rep- resentatives. He was afterward elected U. S. sena- tor from Alabama as a Jackson Democrat in place of Henry Chambers, deceased, and served from 21 Dec, 1826, till 3 March, 1831. Having removed to Florence during his senatorial term, he was, on its conclusion, elected from the latter place a mem- ber of the 23d congress, serving from 2 Dec, 1833, till 3 March, 1835. On 22 April, 1837, he was ap- pointed by President Van Buren a justice of the U. S. supreme court, which office he held until the time of his death.

McKINLEY, William, twenty-fourth president of the United States, b. in Niles, Trumbull co., Ohio, 29 Jan., 1843. On his father's side his an- cestry is Scotch-Irish ; his forefathers came to America one hundred and fifty years ago. Au- thentic records trace the McKinlays in Scotland back to 1547, and it is claimed by students that James McKinlay, "the trooper," was one of Will- iam's ancestors. About 1743 one of the Scotch- Irish McKinleys settled in Chanceford township, York CO., Pa., where his son David, great-grand- father of the president, was born in May, 1755. After serving in the revolution David resided in Pennsylvania until 1814, when he went to Ohio, where he died in 1840, at the age of eighty-live. James McKinley, son of David, moved to Colum- biana county, Ohio, in 1809, when William, father of the president, was not yet two years old. The grandmother of the president, Mary Rose, came from a Puritan family that fled from England to Holland and emigrated to Pennsylvania with William Penn. William McKinley, Sr.. father of the president, born in Pine township, Mercer co.. Pa., in 1807, married in 1829 Nancy Campbell Allison, of Columbiana county, Ohio, whose father, Abner Allison, was of English extraction, and her mother. Ann Campbell, of Scotch-German. Pour of their nine children are now living, William being the seventh. Both the grandfather and the father of the president were iron-uianufacturers, or furnace-men. His father was a devout Meth- odist, a stanch whig and republican, and an ardent advocate of a protective tariff. He died during William's first term as governor of Ohio, in Novem- ber, 1892, and the mother of the president passed away in December, 1897. at the age of eighty-nine. William received his first education in the pub- lic schools of Niles, but when he was nine years old the family removed to Poland, Mahoning co., Ohio, where he was at once admitted into Union seminary and pursued his studies until he wa* seventeen. He excelled in mathematics and the languages, and was the best equipped of all the students in debate. In 1860 he entered the junior class of Allegheny college, Meadville, Pa., where he would have been graduated in the following year but for the failure of his health, owing to which, as soon as he was able, he sought a change by engaging as a teacher in the public schools, lie was fond of athleiie sports, and was a good horseman. At the age of sixteen he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and was noted for his diligent study of the Bible. When the civil war broke out, in the spring of 1861, he was a clerk in the Poland post-office. Young McKinley volunteered, and, going with the recruits to Columbus, was there enlisted as a pri- vate in Company E, of the 23d Ohio volunteer in- fantry, 11 June, 1861. This regiment is one of the most famous of Ohio organizations, including an unusually large number of noted men, among them Gen. W. S. Rosecrans and President Hayes. He participated in all the early engagements in West Virginia, the first being at Carnifex Fei'ry, 10 Sept., 1861, and in the winter's camp at Favette- ville he earned and received his first promotion, commissary sergeant, 15 April, 1862. " Young as McKinley was," said ex-President Hayes at Lake- side in 1891, " we soon found that in business and executive ability he was of rare capacity, of un- usual and surpassing cleverness, for a boy of his age. When battles were fought or a service to be performed in warlike things, he always took his place." At Antietam Sergeant McKinley, when

in charge of the commissary department of his brigade, filled two wagons with coffee and other supplies, and in the midst of the desperate fight hurried them to his dispirited comrades, who took new courage after the refreshment. For this serv- ice he was promoted from sergeant to lieutenant, his commission dating from 24 Sept., 1862.

While at Camp Piatt he was promoted to 1st lieutenant, 7 Feb.; 1863. and under his leadership his company was first to scramble over the enemy's fortifications and silence their guns. Later, in the retreat that began on 19 June, near Lynchburg, and continued until 27 June, the 23d marched 180 miles, fighting nearly all the time, with scarcely any rest or food. Lieut. McKinley conducted himself with gallantry in every emergency, and at Winchester won additional honors. The 13th West Virgina regiment failed to retire when the rest of Hayes's brigade fell back, and was in immi- nent danger of capture. McKinley was directed to go and bring it away, if it had not already fallen, and did so safely, after riding through a heavy fire. "He was greeted by a cheer," says a witness of the incident, " for all of us felt and knew one of the most gallant acts of the war had been per- formed." During the retreat they came upon a battery of four guns which had been left in the way, an easy capture for the enemy. McKinley asked permission to bring it off, but his superior