Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-12-04
THE PRESIDENT-ELECT AND HIS WIFE.
AN INTERESTING CHAPTER OF HISTORY AND PERSONAL
AND GOSSIP.
Mrs. Mckinley.

n
Marriage, and of a Husbands DevO-
ton TO an Invalid Wicklow Some
of McKinley's Sterling Qualities Have
Been Developed.
In 1869 occurred what in the life of every
serious. minded man must be the most i'm
portant event of all-marriage. In Canton
lived the veteran Ohio journalist, John
Saxton, who established the Ohio Reposi-
tory in 1915-the year of Waterloo-and
carried on the paper until his death at an
advanced age. He had the distinction of
being the journalist of longest continuous
service in the whole country west of the
/ Alleghanies. One of his sons, James A.
Saxton, became a banker, a capitalist, and
man of large and varied business affairs.
One of the daughters of the banker was
Ida, girl of many personal charms, a tall
blonde, with large, expressive blue eyes, a
winning manner and quick intelligence.
She was well educated, and after her grad
uation from Brook Hall seminary, at Me-
dia, Pennsylvania, the father sent her to
Europe with her sister to give her broader
view of the world and fit her for the earnest
| duties of life. The older sister had married
and gone to Cleveland to live, and the
father hoped that Ida would form no early
| love attachment, but would remain in his
home to brighten his life. 1t is said that
he Systematically discouraged the addresses
OF all young men, and that for the purpose
of giving his daughter a serious bent he
persuaded her on her return from the for
/ eign tour to go into his bank as his assist
ant. There Ida was installed as cashier.
He had won comfortable fortune, but his
theory about girls was that they should be
hVrotV NI,Oe a
independent of marriage and enable them
to be self-supporting in case the parents
should leave them without sufficient prop
erty for their support.
Lawyer Mckinley had frequent occa-
sions for dropping in at the Saxton bank,
and 1t was not long before Ida's bright
eyes, charming manner and intelligent
! chat had made complete conquest of his
heart. No doubt the same thing happened
TO other young men in Canton who trans
ferred their accounts to Saxton's bank that
they might have an excuse to meet the
pretty cashier, but the ambitious young at
torney, whom most of the Canton girls re-
garded as too serious to be good company,
attracted Ida. Banker Saxton soon learned
that love is stronger than any theories of
life, and he yielded graciously to the inevi-
table. He thoroughly liked and esteemed
Mckinley. The marriage was celebrated
ON January 25, 1871, in the quaint old
Presbyterian church where Ida's parents
and grandparents worshipped, and where
the girl taught class in the Sunday school,
The young bride was warmly attached to
this church, but Immediately transferred
her allegiance to the Methodist church as a
proof of her affection for her husband, who
had been in the Methodist communion
since his sixteenth year.
The married life of these two young
people began under the happiest auspices.
Mr.. Saxton gave his daughter a pretty
house on the best street in the town. Nc
kinley had by this time built up a good
law practice and his income was sufficient
to maintain the new home in modest COM
fort. The future seemed to stretch away
: like broad and sunny path, bordered by
flowers, but in a little time the shadows OF
great sorrows fell and left ineffaceable
marks of suffering on the characters OF
=, the loving husband and wife. Two chill.
dren were born to them, and both were
! claimed by death before the eldest reached
the age of four. The grief of the young
5 mother wrecked her health and left her a
1 victim to nervous disease which made
her cripple for life, able to walk only
!, with pain and with supporting arm. The
|
vision of a childless life and the compan.
: ionship of an incurable invalid. No man
ever accepted such a situation with more
cheerful self-abnegation. He made him
= self the faithful and skillful nurse of hi.
unfortunate wife and gave every hour b,
: could spare from his work TO the task o.
I tightening her sorrows and cheering hel
9 broken life. This course he has pursued
u unfalteringly for more than 20 years, with
= out admitting in his own secret thought
S that he has been doing anything WORTHY
q of praise. His wife's condition cut hin
of from most of the social pleasures which
e men enjoy-the easy-going fellowship o
e clubs and smoking-rooms, of hunting ex
> cursions and pleasure trips, of dinners ant
receptions; for, once free from his duties
as a lawyer or as congressman or govern
e or, he always returned to his wife's side
feeling that she had need of his compan
q ionship. When the wife realized the last
u ing character of her affliction she determ
q ined that she would not allow it TO inter
Il fere with her husbands public career, ant
I, she would have forced herself to be conten
y with far less measure of care and affec
i ton than he has given her, but it was no
n in his nature to be less devoted. The re
markable unity and continuity of conduc
II which has been a marked feature of hi
y military and political career showed itsel
- in his domestic life as a natural result o
IL his organization. He could not be himsel
IS and be otherwise than faithful and tender
n ly devoted to the wife of his youth and tn
e mother of his dead children. His home
,, tragedy has no doubt intensified the natur
o al gravity of his character and has given Il
n his face the lines of sternness and asceti
3 cism which are noticeable when it is in re
e pose, but it has not in the least soured hi
: disposition. On the contrary, it seems Il
n have impaired additional sweetness an,
stranOth