<\/p>\n
Young people today, accustomed to instant communication by television can hardly appreciate the eagerness with which people awaited the daily newspaper at the turn of the century 70 years ago. It was the way in which most of the major news events reached the public.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, when news was received too late for its regular edition, a metropolitan paper published an extra.\u00b7 Such was the case with the Boston Globe on September 14, 1901, whose top heading read: “The Globe Extra – 5 a.m.” Beneath that in large, black, 2t inch high letters were the words “Pres. McKinley is Dead.”<\/p>\n
Then a smaller heading said: “The End Came at 2:15 a.m.” There was no detailed story on the entire front page. All of it was given over to large headings and a central engraving with a picture of McKinley, flanked by the busts of two other martyred presidents, Lincoln and Garfield. The surrounding headings were as follows: “Bereaved wife in another room; others of Family at Bedside; Body to Lie in State at Capital; Cortelyon announced the death at 2:15 a.m.; Unconscious after 7:40 last night; Pathetic parting with his wife; Begged doctors to let him die; Mark Hanna’s awful grief at loss; Administration of oxygen at 8:30 p.m.; Pulse no longer felt at 10:30.”<\/p>\n
On Page 6 the Globe carried the detailed story of the President’s passing. Part of the story concerns McKinley’s own conviction that the end was near. The Globe said: “After oxygen was administered, the President opened his eyes and looked about with that kindly, gentle expression which has made all who have been in the sick room love him. Mrs. McKinley came into the room and took his hand. He looked at her fondly and whispered”‘Goodbye. It is God’s way, His will be done. It was evident that he knew the end was near and that the time for farewells had come.”<\/p>\n
The Globe, in another column, emphasized the speed and facility by which the Constitution provided for a dead President’s successor. All of this our own generation came to understand well, when after the assassination of Pres. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson took the oath as the nation’s chief executive before the plane left Dallas. Some of us also remember well how, after Harding’s death, Calvin Coolidge was administered the presidential oath by his own father, in the ancestral farmhouse at Plymouth. Vermont, the only light coming from a kerosene lamp.<\/p>\n
But in 1901 people did not remember much about the actual procedure of presidential succession, though only twenty years had elapsed since the assassination of Garfield. So the Boston Globe pointed out the procedure in these words: “Taking the oath by the new President is the only act required by law to mark the inauguration of a new administration. Notification by the Secretary of State is a simple propriety, not a necessity. When Secretary Hay notified Vice-President Roosevelt of McKinley’s death, he was performing no more than an act of state etiquette. Mr. Roosevelt is now President; he alone is responsible for the administration of that office. His first official act will be a proclamation to the American people, announcing McKinley’s death. There is a mistaken notion that Congress must meet when the Vice-President succeeds. That is not true; the law makes no such provision. Whether Congress will soon be called into special session is entirely the prerogative of the new President.”<\/p>\n
The Globe commented on how near another man, rather than Theodore Roosevelt. had now come to being President of the U.S. The paper said: “Fate, which made Pres. McKinley victim of an assassin’s bullet. made a member of his cabinet miss the Presidency by a narrow margin. Had Secretary of War Root not pushed away the vice-presidency, he and not Mr. Roosevelt would today be President of the U.S. Prior to the Republican convention in Philadelphia last year, the National Committee had selected Mr. Root as its VP candidate. Mr. Root refused to permit his name to be placed in nomination, insisting that he preferred to head the War Department rather than be V.P. That is why today Theodore Roosevelt is president.”<\/p>\n
The Globe devoted a full page to the new President, first telling how the news reached Roosevelt of McKinley’s death. The account said: “V.P. Roosevelt started at six o’clock yesterday morning for the Tehawus Club at North Creek. N.Y. on a hunting trip through the forests. When news reached North Creek that McKinley’s condition had become critical, men started out at once to find Roosevelt. He was not located until 5 a.m., when he was found at the top of Mt. Marcy, ten miles from the clubhouse. The VP immediately returned to the club. The Adirondack Stage Company set up relays of horses for a distance of 35 miles to expedite Roosevelt’s return to the club as soon as he emerged from the wilderness.”<\/p>\n
Although the details of McKinley’s assassination have become pretty well fixed in history through many later accounts in books, it is well to note what the press said about it at the time when it happened. Here is the Globe’s account: “On that fatal day of Friday, September 6, the Temple Auditorium at the PanAmerican Exposition in Buffalo was jammed with people, and 10,000 more waited outside, hoping to clasp the President’s hand before the long reception line should be halted. The President and Mr. Cortelyon drove up to the side entrance, as the people shouted a loud welcome. The two national leaders were followed by two secret service men. George Foster and S.Ra Ireland. They all entered the hall and were directed where to stand. The corner had been decorated with tall palms and other plants, so that the President stood under a bower. People who would shake hands with the President entered at the southeast door, met the President in the center, and then went out through the southwest door.<\/p>\n
I~t 4 p.m. the doors were open and the people crowded in. An old man with silvery hair was the first to reach the President, and the little girl he carried on his shoulder received a warm salutation. About half of the passing people were women and children. To every child the President bent over and said a few kind words.<\/p>\n
“Down the line came a man of unusual aspect, who is even now unknown. He stood directly in front of another man of foreign appearance. The secret service man thought the man in front acted suspiciously, and Foster laid a hand on the man’s arm. Then came the man who had stood behind the suspicious character. He was a tall, boyish-looking fellow of obviously Polish extraction. His smooth, attractive face indicated no sign of evil intent. The secret service did notice that the man had his right hand wrapped in a handkerchief, carrying the uplifted hand as if it were supported by a sling under his coat. He extended his left hand to shake with the President. Then, without warning, he whipped out his right hand, and two shots rang out within a second. It was 4:08 o’clock.<\/p>\n
“Mr. McKinley reeled and fell into the arms of Secretary Cortelyon. In the sudden pandemonium no one seemed to know what to do. Finally someone said to carry the President to one of the chairs at the far side of the aisle. Mr. McKinley was able to walk a little. but was leaning heavily on his escorts. Quick calls went out for doctors and an ambulance. It was 15 minutes more before he was removed to the emergency hospital on the exposition grounds. There eminent surgeons performed the operation which prolonged Mr. McKinley’s life and which for a younger man would probably have made full recovery possible.”<\/p>\n
So much for that contemporary account of an assassination of a President 68 years ago. Now let us take up another subject.<\/p>\n
Now and then interesting information comes to light concerning the old and distinguished families of Maine. One such family was the Birds of Rockland, where the John Bird Company became famous in the 19th century. Recently Mr. A. W. Larson, whose mother was a member of the Bird family, has given me information about those ambitious and successful Birds.<\/p>\n
John Bird. Sr. was born in Framingham. Mass. in 1798. He was found as a baby on the doorstep of an unknown party with a note attached saying to call him John Bird. The name of his real parents was never known. though it was suspected they were Birds. Evidently they were people of means, because from them, through a confidential agent, was regularly paid money for the child’s care. The suspicion naturally was that the child was illegitimate, and that the family sought to conceal that fact.<\/p>\n
At the tender age of eight, John Bird ran away from his foster home in Framingham and eventually showed up in Camden, Maine. There he found another foster home attended the district school. and was apprenticed to learn the cooper’s trade. In 1821 he married Clarissa Gregory of Camden. As the years went by there were born to the couple five sons and five daughters.<\/p>\n
In 1825 John Bird opened a store in Rockland, then a part of Thomaston and soon afterward he became interested in the manufacture of lime. Every day he walked the three miles from his home to his place of business and the three miles back for all the time he lived across the line in Camden. Not until 1832 did he move to Rockland. There he was elected President of the North Bank, and held that position until his death in 1869.<\/p>\n
At the height of his prosperity, John Bird received a letter from Massachusetts telling him that, if he was interested to learn about his parentage, the information awaited him in Framingham. This was John Bird’s reply to that letter: “I have taken care of myself since I was ten years old. and I think I can continue to do so as long as I live. I couldn’t care less who my parents were.”<\/p>\n
The business in general merchandising, lime and shipping. started by John Bird in 1833 was carried on by his younger sons, John, Jr. and Sidney. From retailing they developed into a large wholesale grocery business. In 1883 they discontinued altogether their retail trade. and in 1891 incorporated as the John Bird Company. In 1900 the company officers and directors included eleven Birds. Groceries and lime were not the only concern of the Birds. They were among Rockland’s most active shipbuilders and operators of sea-going vessels. The sailor of the family seems to have been Hanson Bird. John’s second son, who captained Bird vessels allover the world. Various members of the family either built or held some share in 46 ships. most of them built at Rockland or Camden. In 1851, John Bird launched a schooner named for himself, the John Bird, and three years later the Clarissa Bird, named for his wife. slid down the ways. Other vessels were named the A.J. Bird. the Almon Bird. the H.G. Bird. and the S.N. Bird. The last Bird ship, built in 1881, was the Maggie Belle.<\/p>\n
Hanson Bird was especially proud to captain the schooner Clarissa Bird, named for his mother. It was a big three-master of 1,064 tons, and carried a magnificent figurehead.<\/p>\n
It was quite a family — those Rockland Birds.<\/p>\n
Year: 1969<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #804, Broadcast on April 20, 1969<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42949,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8920"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}