Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/216

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McKIBBIN
McKINLEY


literary critic in various other journals botli in America and abroad. He is surgeon to the Balti- more eve, ear, and throat charity hospital, vice- president of the American laryngological associa- tion, and member of mauyother national and state medical organizations. Dr. Mackenzie is a fre- quent contributor to medical literature, chiefly in matters relating to his specialty.

McKIBBIN, Chambers, soldier, b. in Cham- bersburg. Pa., 2 Nov., 1841. Early in the civil war he enlisted as a private in the regular army: he was appointed 2d lieutenant in the 14th infantry, 23 Sept., 1863. He was made 1st lieutenant, 10 June, 1864. At the close of the war he was trans- ferred to the 32d infantry on 31 Sept., 1866 ; he was promoted to captain of the 35th infantry, 5 Jan., 1867. He was transferred to the 15th infan- try on 12 Aug., 1869. He became major of the 25th infantry on 25 April, 1893, and on 1 May, 1896, lieutenant-colonel of that regiment, partici- pating in the invasion of Cuba under Gen. Shaf- fer; and during the battle of Santiago. 1 July, 1898, his services were of so distinguished a char- acter as to win for him special mention in the oflicial reports. He was promoted brigadier-gen- eral of volunteers, and appointed military governor of Santiago de Cuba when that city fell.

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 MoKinlays 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 resi<led in Pennsylvania until 1814, when he went to Ohio, where he died in 1840, at the age of eighty-five. James McKinley, son of David, moved to Colum- biana county, dliio. in 1809, when William, father of the president, was not yet two years old. The grandmother of the president, JIary Hose, came from a Puritan family that fled from Knglanil 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 1839 Nancy Campbell Allison, of Columbiana county, Ohio, whose father, Abner Allison, was of English extraction, and her mother, Ann Campbell, of Scotch-German. Four of their nine children are now living, William being the seventh. Both the grandfather and the father of the president were iron-manufacturers, or furnace-raen. 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, 1893, 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 was seventeen. He excelled in mathematics and the languages, and Wiis the best equipped of all the students in del)ate. In 1860 he entered the junior class of Alleghetiy college, Meadviile, Pa., where he would have been graduated in the following year but for the failure of his health, owing to which, as soon as ho was able, he sought a change by engaging as a teacher in the public schools. Ffe was fond of athletic 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 Oliio 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. Koseerans and President Hayes. He participated in all the early engagements in West Virginia, the first being at Carnifex Ferry, 10 Sept., 1861, and in the winter's camp at Fayette- ville he earned and received his first promotion, commissary sergeant, 15 April, 1863. " 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 desjierate 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., 1863. While at Camp Piatt he was jiromoted 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 37 June, the 23d nmrclied 180 miles, figliting 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 dii-ected 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 tour guns which had been left in the way, an easy capture for the enemy. McKinley asked permission to bring it off, but his superior