| Publication information |
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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 |
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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.