Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1907-06-07
GL|MPSES OF
MRS. M'K|NLEY
Remarkable Devotion of Former
President and His Wife.
EARLY ROMANCE IN HER LIFE.
How She Was Wooed by Charles Lei.
ter Before She Met Her Husband.
Touching Illustration of His Devo-
ton-Always Fond Of Children.

The late Mrs. William Mcknley's
more than thirty years of invalidlsm
had prevented her from appearing in
public to any extent, even as mistress
of the White House. The entire nation
held her in affectonate and sympa-
thetic regard as the object of the con
slant attention and loving solicitude
of her statesman husband, says the
New York World. She was devoted to
President Mckinley, and when the
dark days came her hope and the am
bition for him never Wavered, and her
enconrag cement was never hacking
She would have been sixty years old
had she lived until June S next, AS
Ida SaXtOn, the daughter of Il prosper
GUS banker, she was reared in home
Of ease ana culture. After finishing
her education she spent much time in
the Stark County bank, her fathers
institution, and on more than one occa
sion she had entire charge Of the insti-
tuition. John ID. Lang. an official Of a
Cleveland mining company, recently
| VIM oii iAN'AN2ht'S S'''S VI ga Nhti - ~
| nance Of Ida SaXton.
Lang was bookkeeper in the Stark
County bank for ten years and taught
bookkeeping TO Miss Saxton. He re-
| called her fondnesS for dancing and
the early evidence she gave of the eX-
tremely atfectionate nature that char
| acterized her later life. Whenever she
| would meet an urchin on the street she
| would stop and kiss him. TO the end
| of her life she showed her intense af
| lection for children. 1t was common
| thing, even in the years since her hus-
| bands death, for Mrs. Mckinley to
| stop her carriage when driving along
| the street and call to her some pratt
! thing child and kiss it or ask to EN-
| brace an attractive baby.
Mr.. Lang said that while Miss Sax
ton was still in her teens there ap-
| peared In Canton d fashionable young
man, Charles Letter, son of a congress
man He appeared to have no serious
purposes in life and no avocation.
Handsome and young, he wooed Miss
| SaXton. Just when it looked as IL his
suit would be successful her father in
terfered. He said young Letter didn't
work and this he considered serious
| drawback. From that time Letter
never saw the girl unless she had a
chaperon. Lang often acted as her
escort at parties.
| Then Major Mckinley, whose legal
talents were beginning to attract at
tention, appeared on the scene. He be.
came acquainted with the bankers
daughter, and all thoughts of other
men passed from her mind. When
Mckinley was suggested for prosecut-
ing attorney, Mr.. SaXton gave him
financial aid for the campaign, and
| when his daughters hand was asked
for the banker said to the handsome
yound soldier-advocate, You are the
only man have ever known to whom
would ntrust my daughter"
| They We're married on Jan. %. 1871,
and went to live in the Mckinley cot
tage on North Market street. Here
Mrs. McKinley's health broke down
under the burden of grief that came
within very few years. A daughter,
Katie, was born to her on Christmas
lay, 1871. \ second daughter, Ida,
came on April /, 1873 but lived only
four months. Mrs. McKinley's mother
died month before the second daugh-
ter was born, and little Katie passed