Born to a successful Ohio family, McKinley met her future husband and later married him during the early Reconstruction years.

She never recovered from losing their daughters as children and remained in a fragile state of health for the rest of her life, including having seizures.

He and Kate DeWalt raised Ida and her younger siblings, Mary and George, in the grand Saxton House.

[2] During the American Civil War, Saxton's mother led a volunteer effort to gather supplies and sew uniforms for the Union Army.

When she had time off from school, Saxton often traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to attend opera performances, classical music concerts, or theatrical plays.

[3][7] After Saxton graduated from finishing school in 1868, her father insisted that she become an actress to help raise funds for the construction of a new Presbyterian church.

That March, Saxton performed at Schaefer's Opera House, posing in tableaus which depicted various scenes from American and European history.

[9] Excluding the time she spent on Grand Tour, Saxton worked at Stark County Bank until she married William McKinley in 1871.

[3] From June to December 1869, Ida Saxton and her younger sister Mary took a Grand Tour of Europe chaperoned by Janette Alexander, using the trip as an opportunity to finish their education.

[4][3][10] The group travelled throughout Europe, visiting Ireland, Scotland, England, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy.

Saxton visited many art museums and met sculptor Vinnie Ream, who later became famous for her statue of Abraham Lincoln in Paris.

[7][4] Saxton's travels also influenced her social outlook and made her aware of her privileged position, as she witnessed working-class women perform physical labor for little pay.

[4][3] While Saxton was working at Stark County Bank, she met William McKinley for the first time in 1868 at a picnic at Meyers Lake, Ohio, about two miles from Canton.

Cloud Hotel for a time until Ida's father bought them a small house on North Market and Elizabeth Street.

[17] The first two years of marriage were reportedly happy and Ida affectionately called William "major" in public and "dearest" in private.

[19] After Katie's birth, Ida returned to her busy social life, making numerous public appearances with William.

During this time, her mother began developing cancer and died on March 20, about two weeks before McKinley gave birth.

[3][22] In the spring of 1873, McKinley gave birth to a sickly infant also named Ida following a very difficult delivery, and the baby died four months later of cholera on August 20.

[23][24][21] Historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony believes because Ida became immunocompromised during her second pregnancy, she gave birth to a sickly daughter.

[31] In the early 1890s, she started believing in reincarnation and became interested in Eastern religions after attending a lecture on the subject, hoping that she would meet her daughters again.

[22] Possessed of a fragile, nervous temperament due to the loss of her mother and two young daughters within a short span of time, Mrs. McKinley broke down.

Guests noted that whenever Mrs. McKinley was about to undergo a seizure, the President would gently place a napkin or handkerchief over her face to conceal her contorted features.

McKinley traveled to California with the President in May 1901, but became so ill in San Francisco[35] that the planned tour of the Northwest was cancelled.

On September 6, 1901, President McKinley was shot in Buffalo, New York in the stomach by a 28-year-old anarchist named Leon Czolgosz.

Failing to successfully sue Saxton for breach of promise, the former Mrs. George was accused of fatally shooting him as he approached the home of another woman—an act she had repeatedly threatened.

[47][48] Mrs. George later married Dr. Arthur Cornelius Ridout, reputedly an alcoholic and a gambler, whose death by hanging from a chandelier was ruled a suicide.

In addition to growing up in the house, she and her husband also lived there from 1878 to 1891, the period during which the future President McKinley served as one of Ohio's Congressional Representatives.