In the books' own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. The later printing (1912) is folded below the first. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
From Past and present of Knox County, Ohio (1912), The Biographical record of Knox County, Ohio : to which is added an elaborate compendium of national biography (1902)
JOHN L. McKINLEY.
John L. McKinley, one of the well-known and highly respected citizens of Knox county, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, February 25, 1848, a son of Jackson and Elizabeth (Atkins) McKinley. His father was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, on the 3d of August, 1 82 1, a son of John and Mary (McDonald) McKinley, both natives of Belfast, Ireland. They were married in their native land, and immediately thereafter emigrated to the United States, locating in Chester county, Pennsylvania, where he resumed the vocation of teaching, having devoted his energies to that profession in his native land, and continuing in that occupation until his seventieth year.
Jackson McKinley, the father of our subject, spent his youth and early manhood under the parental roof, during which time he received excellent advantages, graduating from college with the honors of his class. His marriage was celebrated in 1850, and shortly afterward, leaving his wife in her father's home in Jo Daviess county, luinois, he crossed the plains to California, where he was engaged in mining for about three years. In the spring of 1853 turned to Jo Daviess county, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until the outbreak of the Civil war. At the first call for volunteers he put aside all personal considerations and nobly offered his services as a defender of the stars and stripes. At the close of his three months' term of enlistment he re-enlisted in the Twenty-first Illinois Infantry, under General Grant, in which he served until hostilities had ceased and the country no longer needed his services. During his army career he was promoted from the ranks of a private to first duty sergeant of Company E. He underwent many hardships and privations during his experience as a soldier, having lost his hearing through the cannonading, and during the remainder of his life he was almost entirely deaf. After returning from the war he found his farm had been sold and his family had removed to Jones county, Iowa, in which place he soon joined them, and there he remained until 1868. In that year he removed to Newton county, Missouri, but after a short residence there he sold his possessions and went to Cass county, that state, where his death occurred in 1887. He became very prominent in the public life of the localities in which he made his home, and while residing in Jo Daviess county, Illinois, he served for two terms as assessor and collector, while for the same length of time he also served as county superintendent of public instruction. He was, however, never an aspirant for political honors, preferring to give his time principally to his business duties. For five years he was a worthy member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
For his wife Ir. McKinley those Elizabeth Atkins, who was a native of northeastern Kentucky and a daughter of Robert and Hannah (Ball) Atkins, natives of Maryland and of Welsh descent. For a number of years the father was employed as a boatman on the Ohio river, running from Allegheny City to Cairo, Illinois. The union of Mr. and ]Mrs. McKinley was blessed with eight children, five of whom still survive, namely: John L., the subject of this review; Robert P., a resident of Kansas City; Frances, who has been employed as a teacher in a high school in Kansas City for nineteen years; Mary, the wife of Clarence 'reeler, who is a merchant at Kansas City; and Alonzo, cashier of the Santa Fe & Mexico Railway Company. The mother of this family is still living, and now makes her home in Kansas City, Missouri.
John L. ytIcKinley, whose name introduces this review, remained in his father's home until his fifteenth year, when he began to earn his own living, and for the following year was employed by a neighboring farmer. When the trouble between the north and south precipitated the country into civil war our subject loyally offered his services to his country's cause, enlisting in 1863 in Company E. Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry, but before his company left for the field of action he was taken home by his Grandfather Atkins. But he still persisted in becoming a soldier boy, and later he ran away from his home and went to Galena, Illinois, where with a schoolmate he again enlisted for service. He then returned to his home to gain the consent of his parents, and on the 24th of December, 1863, he donned the blue as a defender of the starry banner, serving as a true and loyal soldier until November 14, 1865, when hostilities had ceased. At the battle of Arcada, Tennessee, his horse was shot under him and he was wounded in the knee. During his military career he took part in many hard-fought battles and skirmishes, took part in Price's raid and was engaged in warfare against Ouantrell in Missouri.
Returning to his home with a military record of which he has every reason to be proud, Mr. McKinley then went to Galena, Illinois, but on the 21st of May, following, he returned to Jones county, Iowa. On the 6th of May, 1865, with a two-horse wagon, he started alone for the Indian Territory, where he joined a schoolmate who was engaged in trading with the Indians, arriving at the latter's place on the 9th of the following June. On the 25th of that month he went to Humboldt, Kansas, where he remained for a time with friends, and in July secured a position as driver on the stage line, his route being from Humboldt to Ottawa, which position he continued to fill for fourteen months. From the following September until February he was at Baxter Springs, Kansas, for the next two and a half years was engaged in driving cattle from Texas into Kansas, and in 1870 he journeyed to Denver, thence to Colorado Springs and Trinidad, on to Bait's Ranch, New Mexico, Virginia City, Montana, and next to Montgomery county, Kansas, where he secured a claim and was also employed by a mill company receiving a dollar and a half per day. Mr. McKinley's next employment was as overseer of a ranch belonging to a civil engineer, which occupation claimed his time until 1874, and in that year he purchased a threshing outfit and continued its operation for the following two years, having operated the first threshing machine in Montgomery county, Kansas. The year 1876 witnessed his' arrival in Knox county, Ohio, where he was engaged in farming in Howard township until the spring of 1889, when he was appointed to the position of superintendent of the county infirmary, continuing to fill that office for ten consecutive years, when he resigned, but in the following year he was reappointed, and is the present incumbent.
In Montgomery county, Kansas, Mr. McKinley was united in marriage to Miss Barbara Workman, a native of Knox county, Ohio, and a daughter of Amos Workman, a prominent farmer of Howard township. He came to the Buckeye state from Maryland, and was among the very early pioneers, his death here occurring. The union of our subject and wife has been blessed with one child, Clinton, who is now a prominent farmer of Liberty township. They have also reared an adopted daughter from the age of three months, Miss Maud McKinley. Mr. McKinley exercises his right of franchise in support of the meri and measures of the Republican party, and for three terms he served as trustee of his township. Socially he is a member of Danville Lodge, F. & A. M.; Sycamore Valley Lodge, I. O. O. F.: and Joe Hooker Post, G. A. R. In manner he is courteous and genial, and among the people with whom he has been so long connected he is very popular.
As printed in The Biographical record of Knox County, Ohio : to which is added an elaborate compendium of national biography (1902). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
JOHN L. McKINLEY.
The name McKinley is destined to occupy an honored place in American history as long as time endures, in view of the fact that it has been emblazoned on the scroll of fame by the great martyred statesman and late beloved President. It will remain forever a monument of the grand possibilities which may be realized under the benign influence of our free institutions and will continue in the future, as it has been in the past, a stimulus to noble deeds and greater activities on the part of a young man of intelligence and energy upon whom fortune cases no benignant miles. John L. McKinley, of this review, is not famed as a leader of men or the holder of public thought, as was the great man referred to above, but he is nevertheless a man of more than ordinary>- settle and has performed his duty well in his sphere of action during a long, varied and most interesting career, and his life may be just as useful and worthy of reward as a result of duty well and conscientiously performed in the arena in which fate placed him as that of the most renowned name of which his generation can boast, for a man's worth lies, after all, in being true to one's self, honorable in his relations wMth his fellow men and loyal in his support of public institutions; this, in brief, is a summary of the admirable attributes of the gentleman to whom the following paragraphs are addressed.
Mr. McKinley was born on February 25, 1848, in Illinois. He is the son of John J. and Elizabeth (Atkins) McKinley, the father born in Pennsylvania and the mother in Kentucky. They both went to Illinois when young people and were married there and made that state their home until the breaking out of the Civil war, when the father enlisted in the Federal army. After the war he moved to Missouri, and later to Kansas. He devoted his life to farming and his death occurred on October 24, 1886, at his home in Cass county. Missouri. Mrs. Elizabeth McKinley, mother of the subject, is still living, making her home in Kansas City.
John L. McKinley, of this sketch, lived on the home farm until he was sixteen years of age, and he attended the country district schools in Illinois.
On October i, 1863, he enlisted in Company E, Seventeenth Regiment Illinois Cavalry, and served very faithfully until November 14, 1865, in the Army of the Cumberland and the western army. He saw much active and hard service and participated in many hotly contested engagements. He was slightly wounded once when a picket courier near Centralia, Missouri, After the war he returned to Galena, Illinois, where he remained until March, 1866, then went to Iowa, thence to the Indian Territory and he drove a stage from Ottawa, Franklin county, Kansas, to Humbolt, Allen county, that state, on the old Santa Fe stage route. At the advent of the railroad the stage was discontinued and Mr. McKinley went to Baxter Springs, Kansas, and engaged to drive cattle, and he was a Kansas and Texas *'cow boy" until 1872, later engaged in various occupations. He finally went to Independence, Kansas, where, on August 13, 1873, he was married to Barbara Workman, daughter of Amos and Lydia (DeWitt) Workman, a Knox county (Ohio) family, of near the town of Danville, where the parents lived and died, the daughter, wife of the subject, having gone to the Sunflower state on a visit when she met Mr. McKinley. To this union one child has beer bom, Clinton, who is married and is living in Liberty township. They also have an adopted daughter, Maude Wade McKinley.
After his marriage, Mr. McKinley lived in Independence, Kansas, variously employed. He operated the first steam threshing machine ever seen in Montgomery county, Kansas. In the fall of 1876 he came to Danville, Knox county, Ohio, and here engaged in farming until the spring of 1889 when he was appointed superintendent of the Knox county infirmary, in which capacity he served with much credit to himself and to the satisfaction of all concerned until in February, 1909, a service of twenty years, which is certainly not only evidence of his fitness, but of his popularity in this county and a criterion of the confidence reposed in him by the people. He was at all times a competent and faithful public servant. Politically, he is a Republican and he has l)een active in party affairs. He served as a meml)er of the Republican county central committee for four years and he has been a frequent delegate to county, district and state conventions where he has always made his influence felt. He was a trustee of Howard township for four years prior to his connection with the infirmary. Fraternally, he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He also belongs to the Joe Hooker Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and Danville Lodge No. 546, Free and Accepted Masons. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. They have a delightful county>' home just west of the village of Bangs, where genial hospitality is extended to their many friends.
He has a fine farm of seventy-six acres in fertile Dry Creek valley, and is well fixed in every respect. He is a man of broad views and thorough understanding of modem agricultural methods which he employed on the county farm with such pronounced success. He is a fine example of a self-educated, self-made man, and is deserving of much credit for what he has accomplished and the worthy, public-spirited citizen into which he has developed.
As printed in Past and present of Knox County, Ohio (1912). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
The printed record stops around 1912. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.