William McKinley Jr. was born on January 29, 1843 in Niles, Ohio. McKinley was the last President to have served in the American Civil War and the only one to have begun the war as an enlisted man. He settled in Canton, Ohio, with his wife, Ida Saxton, after the war, and begun a career in politics, elected to Congress in 1876. He ran for President in 1896 with the goal of ameliorating the economic depression the country had entered. He was the 25th President of the United States, the sixth from Ohio. As President, he led the nation to victory in the Spanish-American War and practiced expansionary imperialist policy under the gold standard. McKinley was shot on September 6, 1901, and succumbed to his wounds on September 14. President William McKinley was made a Great Ohioan in 2018.
Image courtesy of the Ohio History Connection.