EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a weekly series marking the 120th anniversary of Niles native William McKinley’s U.S. presidency.

“Mrs. McKinley a Millionaire,” declared the Los Angeles Times in late July 1901. Earlier that summer, The Washington Post had reported that first lady Ida McKinley was part owner of several Nevada mining claims in which substantial amounts of gold had been discovered.

The mining claims, located close to Ely, Nevada, were part of Ida and her siblings’ inheritance from their father, James A. Saxton, who began his business career as an entrepreneur at the age of 18. Twenty years later, he had founded the Stark County Bank and was serving as its president.

Saxton used his wealth to make a variety of investments in areas such as agriculture, property and mining. By the time he passed away in 1887, he was able to leave each of his three children a sizable inheritance. The mines were only a part of these bequests.

Saxton had acquired the Nevada mines from the Canton Mining Co. The discovery of gold, some samples of which were displayed at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, apparently drew the family’s attention to the mines. President William McKinley and Ida’s brother-in-law began to consider their options, but McKinley did not live to see the outcome.

On Sept. 27, 1901, the New York Times reported that a company had been formed to oversee operations at the “McKinley mines,” as the press called them. Several days later, on Oct. 9, the McKinley Mining and Smelting Company elected its officers. Ida’s brother-in-law was elected president, and McKinley’s former secretary, George B. Cortelyou, was one of the directors. According to the Times, the company acted in accordance with McKinley’s wishes. Ida and her sister sold their mines to McKinley Mining and Smelting in exchange for cash and company stock.

The company began working in 1901. As the development progressed, it became clear the mines contained not only gold but also silver, lead and copper. Newspapers published advertisements urging readers to buy stock in the McKinley Mining and Smelting Company. On April 17, 1903, for example, the Indianapolis Journal ran an ad featuring a large picture of President McKinley. This ad also attributed to McKinley the following quote: “You will make millions out of these mines.”

However rich the land may have been, it was managed inefficiently by the McKinley Mining and Smelting Company. On July 30, 1905, The Washington Post reported Ida and the other previous owners of the mines had been obliged to purchase them from the sheriff’s sale. The Copper Mines (or “Coppermines”) Company acquired the property in 1906, just as this region of Nevada was becoming famous for its large copper deposits. (Gold mining, it turned out, was not a successful venture in this part of the country.) The nearby town of Ely, for instance, soon became a boom town.

Whether or not Ida benefitted from the Nevada mines, she had more than enough wealth to sustain her throughout her widowhood. On top of the inheritance from her father, she also received money from her husband’s estate, a congressional appropriation, and a pension for presidential widows. Mrs. McKinley may not have been a millionaire, but she did “have all she require[d] for her comfort and pleasure,” as the president wrote in his will.

Audra Dull is a librarian at McKinley Memorial Library and the coordinator for the McKinley Birthplace Home.