On September 6, 1901, President William McKinley was shot on the grounds of the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Eight days later he died of gangrene which resulted from the gunshot wounds. He was the third U.S. president to be assassinated.
The funeral train for President William McKinley passed through Harrisburg on September 16, 1901, on its way from Buffalo, New York, to Washington, D.C., on the Pennsylvania Railroad. The colorized photograph above shows the train arriving in Sunbury, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, for a ten minute stop to change engines. After it left Sunbury on its way to Harrisburg, it sped by Herndon, Millersburg, Halifax and Dauphin – without stopping. At Harrisburg, the train stopped for about ten minutes in order to change engines before proceeding south.
Lykens Valley residents had one chance to see the funeral train pass through Millersburg. On the return trip from Washington, D.C. to the burial place in Canton, Ohio, the train went north to Harrisburg and then turned west toward Pittsburgh to its final destination in Ohio.
No photographs of the funeral train have been seen that were taken at or near any of the stations on the route between Sunbury and Harrisburg.
Mourners along the route placed coins on the tracks over which the train passed. At some points along the route, the train rocked back and forth due to the uneven surface on which it was traveling.
The Harrisburg Telegraph of 24 September 1901, reported the following:
Twenty five people from this place [Lykens] went to Millersburg Monday afternoon to see the McKinley funeral train go through.
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