[1]
The family moved to Ohio when the senior McKinley was a boy, settling in New Lisbon (now Lisbon). He met Nancy Allison there and they later married.[1] The Allison family was of mostly English descent and among Pennsylvania's earliest settlers.[2] The family trade on both sides was iron-making. McKinley senior operated foundries throughout Ohio, in New Lisbon, Niles, Poland, and finally Canton.[3] The McKinley household was, like many from Ohio's Western Reserve, steeped in Whiggish and abolitionist sentiment, the latter based on the family's staunch Methodist beliefs.[4]
The younger William also followed in the Methodist tradition, becoming active in the local Methodist church at the age of sixteen.[5] He was a lifelong pious Methodist.[6]
In 1852, the family moved from Niles to Poland, Ohio, so that their children could attend its better schools. Graduating from Poland Seminary in 1859, McKinley enrolled the following year at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. He was an honorary member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.[7] He remained at Allegheny for one year, returning home in 1860 after becoming ill and depressed. He also studied at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio, as a board member.