The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City

by Margaret Creighton

  2. Dr. Park in Niagara Falls: Roswell Park, “Reminiscences of McKinley Week,” typed manuscript, Buffalo History Museum Archives, Mss. A00–390. Drs. Mann and Mynter perform surgery: Presley M. Rixey, Matthew D. Mann, Herman Mynter, Roswell Park, Eugene Wasdin, Charles McBurney, and Charles G. Stockton. “The Case of President McKinley,” Medical Record 60 (Oct. 1901) 601–3, accessed Oct. 20, 2015, at http://mckinleydeath.com/documents/journals/MR60-16dp.htm; “The Case of the Late President McKinley,” British Medical Journal 2 (November 1901): 1348. Dr. Park arrives, urges unity: “Reminiscences,” p. 7.

  3. Operating-room issues: Roswell Park, “Reminiscences”; Rixey et al., “The Case of President McKinley”:601–3; “The Case of the Late President,” 1348–49; Jack C. Fisher, Stolen Glory: The McKinley Assassination (La Jolla, CA: Alamar Books, 2001), 75–81; “The Surgical and Medical Treatment of President McKinley,” Journal of Medicine and Science 7 (October 1901): 389–90.

  4. The Illumination mistake: DeB. Randolph Keim, “Personal Notes,” p. 7.

  5. Frank Baird: Recollections, private collection. Governor: Express, Sept. 7, 1901.

  6. Roosevelt learns of shooting: Burlington Free Press, Sept. 7, 1901; [Brattleboro] Vermont Phoenix, Sept. 13, 1901; St. Albans Daily Messenger, Sept. 7, 1901;J. B. Burnham, “Vermont League Outing,” Forest and Stream 57 (September 1901): 208–9.

  7. McKinley at the Milburn house: Express, Sept. 8, 1901; Com, Sept. 8, 1901; Courier, Sept. 8, 1901.

  8. Reporters: Express, Sept. 9, 13, 1901; Com, Sept. 8, 1901; Courier, Sept. 8, 9, 1901. McKinley holds his own: Com, Sept. 8, 1901; Courier, Sept. 8, 1901. McKinley and wife: Express, Sept. 8, 1901.

  9. Nieman/Czolgosz in jail: Express, Sept. 8, 9, 11, 1901; Com, Sept. 9, 11, 1901. Reveals name: Express, Sept. 8, 1901. On anarchy: Rauchway, Murdering McKinley, 17–19.

  10. Anarchists attacked: Sidney Fine, “Anarchism and the Assassination of McKinley,” American Historical Review 60 (July 1955): 785–87; Com, Sept. 11, 1901. Lynch law: Com, Sept. 11, 1901;Vials, Despotism of the Popular, p. 8;Kachun, “‘Big Jim’ Parker,” 93–116. Goldman: Com, Sept. 7, 1901; Courier, Sept. 11, 1901. Socialists: Express, Sept. 9, 1901.

  11. The Exposition in the wake of the shooting: Courier, Sept. 8, 9, 1901; Com, Sept. 7, 8, 9, 13, 1901; Express, Sept. 9, 1901. Bostock readjusts: Com, Sept. 8, 1901; Express, Sept. 8, 1901.

  12. Maud Willard’s fatal trip: Express, Nov. 15, 1901;Edward T. Williams, “Maud Willard Meets Death in Whirlpool,” in Stunts and Stunters file, Maud Willard folder, NFPL; Orrin E. Dunlap, “Maud Willard,”typed account, Willard file, NFPL; Niagara Falls [NY] Journal, Sept. 13, 1901; Niagara Falls [NY] Review, Aug. 23, 1993.

  13. Annie Taylor: Orrin E. Dunlap, “Interview with Mrs. Taylor, October 25, 1901,” unpublished typed manuscript, Stunts and Stunters file, NFPL.

  14. Cautious optimism: Com, Sept. 8, 1901; Express, Sept. 10, 1901. More certain relief: Express, Sept. 9, 10, 11, 12, 1901; Com, Sept. 8, 9, 10, 1901; Courier, Sept. 8, 1901.

  15. Comparison with Garfield: Courier, Sept. 8, 1901; Express, Sept. 10, 1901. Senator Hanna bubbles over: Express, Sept. 10, 1901. Mrs. McKinley: Com, Sept. 12, 1901;Carl Sferrazza Anthony, Ida McKinley: The Turn of the Century First Lady Through War, Assassination, and Secret Disability (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2013), ebook, location 5128 (chapter 16).

  16. Suffragists visit: Express, Sept. 8, 9, 1901. Roosevelt on suffrage, 1898, and women’s duty, 1905: “Woman’s Column” XI (January 1898), accessed Oct. 14, 2015, at https://archive.org/stream/WomansColumn18981899/Womans%20Column%201899_djvu.txt; Address by President Roosevelt before the National Congress of Mothers, March 2, 1905. Theodore Roosevelt Collection. MS Am 1541 (315), Harvard College Library. http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record.aspx?libID=o280100. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library, Dickinson State University. More than a decade later, as a third-party candidate for president, Roosevelt would support women’s right to vote unequivocally. Roosevelt saunters about Buffalo: Courier, Sept. 9, 10, 1901; Express, Sept. 9, 1901. Roosevelt and McBurney leave: Express, Sept. 11, 1901.

  17. Jim Parker as hero: News, Sept. 8, 1901; Express, Sept. 10, 1901; Com, Sept. 11, 13, 1901; Washington Post, Sept. 10, 1901; Courier, Sept. 11, 1901.

  18. African American representation at world’s fairs: Robert W. Rydell, “‘Darkest Africa’: African Shows at America’s World’s Fairs, 1893–1940,” in Bernth Lindfors, ed., Africans on Stage: Studies in Ethnological Show Business (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), 135–45; Sara S. Cromwell, “Fair Treatment? African-American Presence at International Expositions in the South, 1884–1902” (MA thesis, Wake Forest University, 2010), ch. 3; Amma Y. Ghartey-Tagoe, “The Battle Before the Souls of Black Folk: Black Performance in the 1901 Pan-American Exposition” (PhD diss., NYU, 2009), 15–18; Ida B. Wells, ed., “The Reason Why the Colored American is not in the World’s Columbian Exposition,”http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/wells/exposition/exposition.html). Buffalo protests, Mary Talbert: Com, Nov. 12, 1900; Times, Nov. 12, 1900; Express, July 8, 1901; William H. Loos, Ami M. Savigny, Robert M. Gurn, and Lillian S. Williams, The Forgotten “Negro Exhibit”: African American Involvement in Buffalo’s Pan-American Exposition, 1901 (Buffalo: Buffalo and Erie County Public Library and the Library Foundation of Buffalo and Erie County, 2001); Peggy Brooks-Bertram and Barbara Seals Nevergold, Uncrowned Queens: African American Women Community Builders (Buffalo: Uncrowned Queens Publishing, 2005),163; and http://www.buffalonian.com/history/articles/1901-50/ucqueens/negro_exhibit_at_pan_am.htm. Negro Exhibit: Illustrated Buffalo Express, 1901, from http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html.

  19. African American newspapers on the Negro Exhibit: See, for example, [Kansas City] American Citizen, May 17, 1901. Colored American, Aug. 10, 17, 1901. Pan-American Du Bois exhibit: Express, April 24, May 5, 14, 1901; New York Times, Sept. 21, 1901, accessed at http://search.proquest.com/docview/96147725?accountid=8505; Loos et al., “The Forgotten ‘Negro Exhibit.’”

  20. African Americans and Africans on the Midway: Express, June 25, 29, 1901. Esau: Courier, Aug. 8, 1901. Mabel Barnes in Darkest Africa: “Peeps,” Vol. III, pp. 70–88;Robert Rydell discusses ways in which African performers resisted or turned tables on visitors in Chicago in 1893.See “‘Darkest Africa,’” 145.

  21. Laughing Ben: Com, Aug. 8, 1901; Express, May 12, 1901.

  22. Redefining, erasing Jim Parker: Express, Sept. 9, 10, 12, 13, 1901; News, Sept. 8, 1901; Com, Sept. 13, 1901; see also Rauchway, Murdering McKinley.

  CHAPTER 6: THE RISE AND THE FALL

  1. Buffalo’s doctors and residents praised: Express, Sept. 10, 1901; Courier, Sept. 9, 1901; Brooklyn Eagle, reprinted in Com, Sept. 11, 1901. Buffalo as world’s epicenter: Courier, Sept. 9, 10, 1901; Com, Sept. 9, 1901; Express, Sept. 8, 13, 1901.

  2. Upcoming attractions, Railroad Day: Express, Sept. 9–13, 1901; Com, Sept. 9, 1901. Bostock’s new publicity: Express, Sept. 12, 1901; Com, Sept. 10, 13, 1901; Courier, Sept. 13, 1901.

  3. National Jubilee Day plans: Express, Sept. 11, 12, 1901; Courier, Sept. 10, 1901.

  4. The change: Express, Sept. 11, 12, 13, 1901; Com, Sept. 10, 12, 13, 1901.

  5. New symptoms; alarm; sending word: Nelson W. Wilson, “Details of President McKinley’s Case,” Buffalo Medical Journal 57 (October 1901): 216; Rixey et al., “The Official Report on the Case of President McKinley,” Buffalo Medical Journal 57 (October 1901): 280–83; Express, Sept. 13, 1901; Com, Sept. 13, 1901. Kipling: Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 140 (March 1899): 269.

  6. Ida McKinley, the weather: Com, Sept. 13, 1901.

  7. Roosevelt informed: Jacob A. Riis, Theodore Roosevelt: The Citizen (New York: Macmillan, 1912), 242–49, accessed at http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008340195;view=1up;seq=261; New York Sun, Sept. 14, 1901; Com, Sept. 13, 1901; Courier, Sept. 13, 14, 1901.

  8. Bulletins, premonitions, desperate efforts: Rixey et al., “Official Report,” 280–83; New York Sun
, Sept. 14, 1901; “The People of the State of New York against Leon F. Czolgosz.” Unpublished trial transcript, 23–24, 26 Sept. 1901 (testimony of Dr. Mann), accessed at http://mckinleydeath.com/documents/govdocs/transcript.htm.

  9. Morphine; final words: Rixey et al., “Official Report,” 280–83; Courier, Sept. 15, 1901; Com, Sept. 13, 1901; Anthony, Ida McKinley, ebook, location 5397, chapter 16.

  10. Superintendent Bull: Express, Sept. 14, 1901; Com, Sept. 13, 1901. Coroner: Express, Sept. 14, 1901. Last minutes of life: Daily Alaska Dispatch, Sept. 18, 1901; “Those Present at the Death-Bed,” Harper’s Weekly (September 21, 1901): 946;Wilson, “Details of President McKinley’s Case,” 207–25; Florence Times, Sept. 20, 1901.

  11. Pausch: John Elfreth Watkins, Jr., “M’Kinley Death Mask,” [Indianapolis] Sunday Journal, Dec. 29, 1901; New York Times, Nov. 19, 1901. Autopsy: Rixey et al., “Official Report,” 284–93; “The People of the State of New York against Leon F. Czolgosz,”Trial Transcript, testimony of Herman Mynter; autopsy report of Dr. Harvey Gaylord.Thanks to infectious-disease specialist Robert P. Smith, MD, pathologist Frederick Meier, MD, and trauma surgeon Stanley Trooskin, MD, for contemporary insights into this case.

  12. Roosevelt arrives, takes oath of office: Com, Sept. 14, 1901; Boston Globe, Sept. 15, 1901;Marshall Everett, Complete Life of William McKinley and Story of his Assassination (Chicago: C. W. Stanton, 1901), 304–5, accessed at http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t5fb4x97r;view=1up;seq=7. The Exposition in shock and dark: Express, Sept. 15, 1901.

  CHAPTER 7: AFTERSHOCK

  1. Exposition in mourning: Express, Sept. 16, 1901. Cortege: Com, Sept. 16, 1901; New York Tribune, Sept. 16, 1901; Courier, Sept. 15, 1901. City Hall mourners: New York Tribune, Sept. 16, 1901; Express, Sept. 15, 16, 1901;Marshall Everett, Complete Life of William McKinley and Story of his Assassination (Chicago: C. W. Stanton, 1901),343–44;Doc Waddell, manager of the Indian Congress, likely wrote Geronimo’s note. See Kevin D. Shupe, “Geronimo Escapes: Envisioning Indianness in Modern America,” PhD diss., George Mason University, 2011.

  2. Funeral train, Washington: New York Tribune, Sept. 17, 1901; Com, Sept. 16, 18, 1901; Express, Sept. 18, 1901;Everett, Complete Life of William McKinley, 345–48.

  3. Canton: Express, Sept. 17, 19, 20, 1901.

  4. Blaming Buffalo surgeons: Express, Sept. 20, 1901; New York World, Sept. 16, 1901; Courier, Sept. 18, 1901. Defending Buffalo surgeons: Express, Sept. 18, 1901; Com, Sept. 18, 30, 1901.

  5. Gloom: New York Times, Sept. 23, 1901; Courier, Sept. 16, 1901; Express, Sept. 17, 1901; Com, Sept. 21, 1901; Times, Sept. 22, 1901. McKinley’s shrine: New York Times, Sept. 23, 1901; Courier, Sept. 23, Oct. 1, 2, 1901; Express, Sept. 16, 1901.

  6. Bostock rallies: Courier, Sept. 15, 1901. New animals: Com, Sept. 16, 18, 20, 21, 1901; Courier, Sept. 19, 23, 27, 1901; Express, Sept. 16, 1901. Humane Society report: Erie County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Annual Report (Buffalo, 1901), 30–33.

  7. Czolgosz’s indictment: Express, Sept. 17, 1901. Praise for trial: Com, Sept. 18, 1901; Express, Sept. 17, 1901;Leroy Parker, “The Trial of the Anarchist Murderer Czolgosz,” Yale Law Journal 11 (Dec. 1901): 80–94, accessed at http://mckinleydeath.com/documents/journals/YLJ11-2.htm; Daily Picayune, Sept. 24, 1901. The trial and sentencing: Com, Sept. 24, 1901;Parker, “The Trial of Czolgosz”;Carlos F. MacDonald, “The Trial, Execution, Autopsy and Mental Status of Leon F. Czolgosz, Alias Fred Nieman, the Assassin of President McKinley,” American Journal of Insanity 58 (Jan. 1902): 369–86, accessed at http://mckinleydeath.com/documents/journals/AJI58-3b.htm; “The Trial of Czolgosz,” Outlook 69 (Oct. 1901): 242–43. Goldman and alienists: Emma Goldman, “October Twenty-Ninth, 1901,” Mother Earth 6 (October 1911): 232–35, accessed at http://mckinleydeath.com/quotes/trial.htm; “The Manner of Man that Kills: A Review,” The Journal of Heredity 13 (March 1922): 136.

  8. Eliminating Parker: See Mitch Kachun, “‘Big Jim’ Parker and the Assassination of William McKinley: Patriotism, Nativism, Anarchism, and the Struggle for African American Citizenship,” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 9 (January 2010): 99. Conflicting opinions: Omaha Daily Bee, Oct. 7, 1901; Express, Sept. 27, 28, 1901; Courier, Sept. 26, 28, 1901; News, Sept. 27, 1901, Oct. 1, 1901; Kachun, “‘Big Jim’ Parker,” 99. Vine Street Church meeting: Express, Sept. 28, 1901. Parker lectures: Washington Times, Oct. 9, 1901; Colored American, Oct. 12, 1901.

  9. Cold weather: Courier, Sept. 15, 21, 24, 27, Oct. 3, 5, 22, 1901; News, Sept. 24, 1901; Express, Sept. 26, 1901; Com, Oct. 7, 1901.

  10. Dog feast numbers: Courier, Oct. 6, 1901; Com, Sept. 30, 1901. Geronimo: Express, June 29, Sept. 25, Oct. 5, 1901; Courier, June 29, Sept. 25, 1901; Com, Oct. 1, 3, 1901. Indians turn the tables: Com, Sept. 2, 1901; Enq, June 22, 1901.

  11. Dog feasts: Com, Sept. 28, 30, 1901. Native ritual: Omaha World Herald, April 21, 1899, Aug. 21, 1898; Duluth News Tribune, Aug. 16, Nov. 19, 1899; Biloxi [MS] Daily Herald, Oct. 26, 1900. Taking of Buffalo dogs: Express, Sept. 22, 1901; Com, Sept. 24, 1901. Protests: Express, Sept. 25, 1901;ECSPCA, Annual Report, 21–22. Feast: Express, Sept. 27, 1901; Com, Sept. 27, 1901.

  12. More animals: Express, Oct. 6, 1901. Chiquita and Tony: [Erie] Daily Times, Nov. 2, 1901; Kalamazoo Gazette, Nov. 13, 1908; Express, Nov. 9, 1901;Al Stencell, “Frank Bostock in America,” in National Fairground Archive, The Sheffield University, accessed Aug. 13, 2014, at http://www.nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk/jungle/index1a1.html.

  13. Forsaking fair: Com, Sept. 25, 1901. Railroad Day, Mabel Barnes: Express, Sept. 29, 1901; Com, Sept. 25, 27, 28, 1901;Barnes, “Peeps,”Vol. III, pp. 181–90.

  14. Lion-cage wedding: Express, Sept. 29, 1901; Courier, Sept. 29, 1901.

  15. Illinois Day; hunger: Express, Oct. 7, 1901. Train accident: Express, Oct. 7, 8, 1901; Com, Oct. 7, 1901. Illinois speeches: Express, Oct. 7, 8, 1901; Com, Oct. 7, 1901.

  CHAPTER 8: FREEFALL

  1. Mood swings; bank panic: Courier, Oct. 11, 1901; Times, Oct. 1, 1901; Com, Oct. 14, 1901.

  2. Czolgosz in prison: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Oct. 1, 1901; Auburn Weekly Bulletin, Oct. 8, 10, 11, 29, 1901; Elmira Star Gazette, Oct. 26, 1901; Cortland Democrat, Oct. 4, 1901; News, Oct. 15, 1901.

  3. Buffalo Day, brainstorming: Com, Oct. 11, 19, 21, 1901; Courier, Oct. 20, 21, 1901.

  4. At the West Bay City Cooperage: Bay City Times-Press, Oct. 3, 1901. Leaving Bay City: Bay City Times-Press, Oct. 8, 1901; Daily Cataract Journal, Oct. 17, 1901.

  5. Taylor’s early life: Anna Edson Taylor, The Autobiography of Anna Edson Taylor (printed booklet, n.d., n.p., Anna Taylor file, Niagara Falls Public Library), 2–3; Express, Oct. 21, 27, 1901. Texas experiences: Taylor, Autobiography, 3–4. Later escapades: Taylor, Autobiography, 4–8; Express, Oct. 21, 27, 1901;Whalen, The Lady Who Conquered, 1–17;Charles Carlin Parish, Queen of the Mist: The Story of Annie Edson Taylor (Interlaken, NY: Empire State Books, 1987), 31–44. On p. 40, Parish sums up the quandary of most of Taylor’s biographers: “Where does truth end and fantasy begin?” Taylor in Asylum: 1900 United States Federal Census, Traverse City, Michigan, accessed at interactive.ancestrylibrary.com/. Evidence of residence in Texas: Letters in post office for Mrs. David Taylor: Galveston Daily News, Aug. 3, 1879;lot sold to Anna E. Taylor for $5,000: Fort Worth Daily Gazette, March 24, 1887.

  6. Mrs. Odell’s visit: Express, Oct. 11, 1901. Annie Taylor: Express, Oct. 21, 1901. Elite Women of Buffalo: See Mary Rech Rockwell, “‘Let Deeds Tell’: Elite Women of Buffalo, 1880–1910,” (PhD diss., State University of New York at Buffalo), esp. ch. 5. Women Managers: Newark Sunday News, Feb. 24, 1901; Express, Sept. 26, 1901;Com, Aug. 16, 1901;Director-General Buchanan to (Pan-American) Executive Committee, June 6, 1901, Buffalo History Museum Archives, Buchanan correspondence, Mss. C 64–6. White City: Enq, Feb. 1, 1901; New York Evening Post, Nov. 21, 1900. Women as women: Harper’s Weekly, Aug. 3, 1901; Com, Oct. 8, 1901.

  7. The New Woman and mobility: Virginia Scharff, Women and the Coming of the Motor Age
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999), 4; Amy G. Richter, Home on the Rails: Women, the Railroad, and the Rise of Public Domesticity (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 45–55, 143–58; Com, Sept. 9, 1901. Bicycles: Ellen Gruber Garvey, “Reframing the Bicycle: Advertising-Supported Magazines and Scorching Women,” American Quarterly 47 (March 1995): 67–69, 72. Warnings: Richter, Home, 45–55;Scharff, Motor Age,25–26, 47, 71–72;Mona Domosh and Joni Seager, Putting Women in Place: Feminist Geographers Make Sense of the World (New York: Guilford Press, 2001), 124–25;Garvey, “Reframing,”70, 74–75, 80.

  8. Finding Truesdale: Dwight Whalen, The Lady Who Conquered Niagara (Bailey Island, ME: EGA Books, 1991), 50–52. Answering skeptics: Express, Oct. 21, 1901; Niagara Falls Journal, Oct. 18, 1901; Kalamazoo Gazette-News, Oct. 16, 1901.

  9. Niagara River and Falls: Ralph S. Tarr, “Physical Geography of New York State. Part VIII. The Great Lakes and Niagara,” Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York 31 (1899): 324; D. W. Johnson, “Rate of Recession of Niagara Falls,” The American Naturalist 41 (August 1907): 541–42, accessed at http://www.jstor.org/stable/2454830?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.

  10. Tourists, developers: Linda Revie, The Niagara Companion: Explorers, Artists, and Writers at the Falls, from Discovery through the Twentieth Century (Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2003), 3–4;Patrick McGreevy, Imagining Niagara: The Meaning and Making of Niagara Falls (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1994), 36–37. Performers: Pierre Berton, Niagara: A History of the Falls (Albany: State University of New York, 1992), 124–40, 189–90.

  11. Midleigh/Gardner: New York Times, June 29, 1890. Cat: Bay City Times-Press, Oct. 19, 1901; Express, Oct. 21, 1901.

  12. Fairgrounds in disrepair: Express, Oct. 25, 1901. Shows closing: Com, Oct. 24, 1901; Express, Oct. 24, 1901; Courier, Oct. 24, 1901. Buchanan leaving: Com, Oct. 25, 1901. Pessimism and guarded optimism: Com, Oct. 22, 26, 1901; Express, Oct. 21, 23, 1901. Bostock oblivious: Express, Oct. 23, 1901; Com, Oct. 7, 22, 23, 1901; Courier, Oct. 8, 1901.