The funeral train for President William McKinley passed through Harrisburg on 16 September 1901, on its way from Buffalo, New York, to Washington, D.C., via Harrisburg, on the Pennsylvania Railroad. The photograph above shows the train arriving in Harrisburg after it passed through Millersburg earlier in the day. 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.
On 6 September 1901, 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 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.
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.
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The photograph is from a private collection.
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