By 1880 , Keim was residing with his wife and young daughters on Hill Road in Reading , Pennsylvania . As their lives unfolded , his work began to appear in multiple publications , including the '' Philadelphia Times '' , while his wife became increasingly involved with the Daughters of the American Revolution ( D.A.R. ) . By the end of the decade , columnists for Washington D.C. 's '' Evening Star '' were noting that Keim 's wife and daughters spent summers at their cottage at Martha 's Vineyard while Keim stayed behind at their home in Washington D.C. in order to cover Congress while it was in session . When it was n't , he spent weekends at " Edge Mount " , the family 's " picturesque home " in Reading , Pennsylvania . During the 1890s , his journalism career also involved writing about society news . According to '' The Wichita Daily Eagle '' , which ran an extensive biographical sketch of him under the headline , “ Of Deb . Randolph Keim : The Best Society Writer in Washington Is a Man ” : Mr. Keim is the court chronicler of the republic , the semi-official , recognized and authoritative purveyor of the news of society . There are other society reporters , plenty of them , and many who report more news and write more gossip than he , but whatever Keim writes goes unquestioned as to its accuracy and undoubted as to its authority ... . Mr. Keim , though the descendant of one of the best families in Pennsylvania , had no aristocratic training for his work . He approached the social field by the military road . During the war of the rebellion he was correspondent of The New York Herald . While at the front for his paper he formed friendships with such great generals as Grant , Sherman , Sheridan and McPherson , friendships which lasted as long as these men lived . It was to Mr. Keim that Gen. Grant said just before they took him to Mount McGregor , " I shall be dead within six weeks . " Present when President William McKinley was shot in Buffalo on September 6 , 1901 , Keim quickly wrote down what he had seen , and penned his " Extraordinary Eyewitness Account of the Assassination of President McKinley " the next day . A week later , McKinley died from his wounds ( on September 14 )
shot in Buffalo
Assassination of William McKinley
De Benneville Randolph Keim