From Scotland, To Ulster, To America

William McKinley served as the 25th president of the United States, from 1897 to 1901, when he was assassinated six months into his second term. His paternal line goes back from Ohio – which is where William was born in 1843 and was the state he would represent in the House – to Pennsylvania and previously to Ireland and Scotland, though there is some confusion as to who moved where and when.

This installation is in Riverside Park in Dervock, County Antrim. The second board below states that McKinley’s great-great-grandfather James emigrated to the Province Of Pennsylvania in 1743 from Conogher/Conagher, a townland to the west of the village. (Another source gives “David” but cf. this family tree.) Previously, ancestors had come to Ulster from Scotland, though again the history is uncertain – the information on the boards makes connections to both Robert The Bruce and the Williamite army.

The fourth (missing) panel had the heading “Proud of his Ulster-Scots roots”; it can be seen in this News Letter article concerning Francis McKinley’s participation in the 1798 rebellion – in the same vein, it cites a New York Press article that claims the emigrants of 1743 were “driven from their homes for their opposition to English misrule”.