Although Williams did not hold elected office , he was a friend and supporter of President William McKinley and was a delegate to the 1896 Republican National Convention . He was appointed by Governor Frank W. Higgins to membership in the McKinley Monument Commission , which erected a memorial in Buffalo to McKinley , who had been assassinated at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901 . Matthews was a member of many clubs and organizations , including : Matthews owned a country estate , called " Falconwood , " in Grand Island , New York . Falconwood was the former Falconwood Club , built in 1882 and designed by Joseph Lyman Silsbee , a prominent architect of the time who studied at the first school of architecture in the United States , the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1896 Republican National Convention
1896 Republican National Convention
George E. Matthews