Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "McKinley, William" to "Magnetism, Terrestrial"

This concise encyclopedia entry opens with a portrait of William McKinley’s modest beginnings in Ohio, tracing his Scotch‑Irish roots back to County Antrim and following the family’s migration through Pennsylvania to the western frontier. It sketches the household of nine children, noting his father’s iron‑working trade and the early schooling that shaped a bright but frail youngster.

The narrative then moves to McKinley’s brief stint at Allegheny College before he returned home to teach, only to enlist when the Civil War erupted in 1861. Within months he rose from private to lieutenant, seeing action at South Mountain, Antietam, and the Shenandoah Valley, where his courage earned promotions to captain and a brevet major’s rank by war’s end.

These formative years of hardship, education, and battlefield experience lay the groundwork for the man who would later assume the nation’s highest office, illustrating how his early character was forged long before his political ascent.