Ida Saxton McKinley
Ida McKinley 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 the governor of Ohio.
Born to a successful Ohio family, McKinley met her future husband and later married him during the early Reconstruction years. McKinley never recovered from losing their two 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. McKinley's ability to fulfill the role of First Lady was nevertheless limited. She was brought further grief by the death of her brother and the assassination of her husband. McKinley reportedly visited her husband's resting place daily until her own death and supported James Benjamin Parker, who had attempted to stop her husband's assassination.
Early life and marriage
Ida Saxton was born on June 8, 1847, 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 was quite wealthy. Through his work in banking, 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. 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. 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 helped her mother with these tasks.Education
Saxton's parents strongly believed in abolitionism and equal education for women. 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. At all the schools she attended, Saxton excelled in her studies, and was called "an apt learner" and "gifted as a scholar".Saxton attended finishing school at Brooke Hall Female Seminary from 1865 to 1868. There, she was educated in singing, piano playing, linguistics, and needlepoint, skills that would prepare her to become the household hostess. When she had time off from school, Saxton often traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to attend opera performances, classical music concerts, or theatrical plays. She made many long-lasting friendships with fellow students and teachers at Brooke Hall Female Seminary, including teacher Harriet Gault. 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.
Career and trip to Europe
After Saxton graduated from finishing school in 1868, her father insisted that she become an actress to help raise funds for the construction of 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". Saxton also worked as a clerk at Stark County Bank, which her father owned. Saxton later worked as a cashier and managed the bank in her father's absence. 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. Excluding the time she spent on Grand Tour, Saxton worked at Stark County Bank until she got married in 1871. When she was not working or traveling, Saxton taught Sunday school at the First Presbyterian Church, the same church her grandfather John Saxton helped establish.From June to December 1869, 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. The group travelled throughout Europe, visiting Ireland, Scotland, England, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy. Saxton visited many art museums and met sculptor Vinnie Ream, who later became famous for her statue of Abraham Lincoln in Paris. Saxton also met a limbless painter named Charles Felir in Amsterdam who painted with his mouth. According to the National First Ladies' Library, " example seems to have inspired her to later insist on living a full public life despite disabilities she developed ." 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 and kissed his hand" because she thought he was "such a nice old man". Ida and Mary continued the habit of hiking daily to maintain physical health, hiking throughout the Swiss Alps. 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 Saxton travelled to Belgium and saw lace workers create 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.
Marriage and family
While working at Stark County Bank, Saxton met William McKinley for the first time in 1868 at a picnic at Meyers Lake, Ohio, about two miles from Canton. He was visiting his sister Anna when he developed an acquaintance with Saxton. At this time, Saxton was engaged to Confederate Army veteran John Wright. However, Wright suddenly died of brain inflammation while Ida was in Europe. After her Grand Tour, Ida was approached by many suitors, but she turned down their offers of marriage.In 1870, Saxton began seriously courting McKinley after he impressed her with his introduction of Horace Greeley at a lecture. At this time, Saxton was courting other men but was impressed by his moral character. 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. 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. 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. The service was attended by one thousand people, as Ida was considered the belle of Canton. 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.
Children and development of illness
After their honeymoon, William and Ida McKinley returned to Canton and lived in St. Cloud Hotel for a time until Ida's father bought them a small house on North Market and Elizabeth Street. The first two years of their marriage were reportedly happy, and Ida affectionately called William "major" in public and "dearest" in private. Their first child, Katherine "Katie", was born on Christmas Day 1871, while William was still a lawyer in Canton. She was adored by her parents, becoming the center of the household. Katie was smothered with love by Ida, getting both her photograph taken and an oil painting done. After Katie's birth, Ida returned to her busy social life, making numerous public appearances with William. Ida also joined William's Methodist church and Katie was baptized.McKinley became pregnant again shortly thereafter. During this time, her mother began developing cancer and died on March 20, about two weeks before McKinley gave birth. At her mother's burial, McKinley fell while stepping into or out of a carriage, striking her head. This likely caused her to develop epilepsy and phlebitis. In April 1873, McKinley gave birth to a sickly infant also named Ida following a very difficult delivery, and the baby died four months later of cholera on August 20. Historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony believes that because Ida became immunocompromised during her second pregnancy, she gave birth to a sickly daughter.
McKinley was grief-stricken, and she believed that God punished her by killing her daughter. McKinley was deeply affected by this and desperately feared the loss of her firstborn child. Among the many ailments she developed, McKinley's walking ability was impaired and she lost strength in her dominant hand. Dr. Whitney, her father's physician, cared for McKinley's maladies and ordered complete rest. Unable to care for Katie and be separated from her father, the McKinleys moved into the Saxton House for six months and Ida's sister Mary took care of Katie. McKinley spent hours a day in a darkened room with Katie in her arms, kissing her and weeping. She would not let Katie leave her sight unless William took her for a drive. 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 would go out of the yard, God would punish mama some more." In June 1875, Katie became ill and died of heart disease on June 25.
After Katie died, McKinley was plunged into a state of deep depression and she prayed for her own death. McKinley ate very little food and her seizures worsened. William did everything in his power to retain her "interest in existence", offering to sacrifice his political ambitions for her well-being. Ida clung tightly to William, commissioning a painting of him and hanging it on the wall across from her bed. She stopped going to church, believing that God had abandoned her. In the early 1890s, Ida started believing in reincarnation and became interested in Eastern religions after attending a lecture on the subject, hoping that she would meet her daughters again. When Ida saw little girls, she stared intently at them, hoping one of her children had come back. Ida made every effort to preserve her children's memory, hanging the picture of Katie on her wall as well as preserving her clothes and rocking chair.