McKinley Assassination Ink: A Documentary History of William McKinley's Assassination

Publication information

Source: Personal Recollections of Half a Century
Source type: book
Document type: chronological entry
Document title: “Rode on McKinley Funeral Train”
Author(s): Wagenseller, George W.
Publisher: none given
Place of publication: Middleburg, Pennsylvania
Year of publication: [1919]
Pagination: 38

Citation

Wagenseller, George W. “Rode on McKinley Funeral Train.” Personal Recollections of Half a Century. Middleburg: [n.p.], [1919]: p. 38.

Transcription

full text of entry; excerpt of book

Keywords

George W. Wagenseller; McKinley funeral train (persons aboard).

Named persons

George W. Boyd; George B. Cortelyou; William McKinley; Theodore Roosevelt.

Notes

From title page: Personal Recollections of Half a Century: The Silver Anniversary of Business, 1894-1919, and the Golden Jubilee of Life, 1868-1919: St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1919.

From title page: By Geo. W. Wagenseller, A. M., Litt. M., Editor and Publisher, Middleburg Post, Middleburg, Pa.

From title page: Printed for Private Distribution.

From cover: Press of The Middleburgh [sic] Post.

On the book’s cover the town name is given twice as Middleburgh.

Document

Rode on McKinley Funeral Train

     Sept. 16, I was accorded an honor I shall never forget. The POST of Sept. 19th, 1901 says:
     “Through the courtesy of Private Secretary Cortelyou and Geo. W. Boyd, Assistant General Passenger Agent of the P. R. R., the Editor of the POST Monday was assigned a seat in Chair Car ‘Raleigh’ and he became a passenger on the McKinley funeral train.
     “The train carried the body of the late President McKinley, his widow the grief stricken wife, and her relatives, President Roosevelt and Cabinet, United States Senators, secret service men, McKinley’s guard of honor, and newspaper men. The number of passengers on the entire train did not exceed 140 people including the R. R. employees.”
     I was a passenger on the train from Sunbury to Harrisburg, while the body was being taken from Buffalo to Washington. Only 140 people of the United States on a Presidential funeral train, and to be one of the 140, I naturally swelled up some.

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