President William McKinley was a well-liked president who accomplished a great deal while in office. As 25th president, he raised protective tariffs to help American manufacturers and stabilized American currency by passing the Gold Standard Act in 1900.
When the USS Maine was sunk by the Spanish in the Havana harbor, McKinley and most Americans favored the U.S. entry into the Spanish-American War. They supported Cuban independence, and when the U.S. was victorious, the country gained territories belonging to Spain including Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. In 1898, McKinley also annexed Hawaii.
President McKinley and his wife were very devoted to one another, but family tragedy and multiple household moves kept their pet population down. One reporter said that McKinley was the first president since Andrew Johnson to move into the Executive Mansion without a pet.
This situation was quickly remedied with the gift of a rooster. But the president’s favorite new pet was the Mexican double yellow-headed parrot that McKinley named “Washington Post.”
This article contains more detail on the parrot and roosters at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but I also attempt to explain why the other McKinley pets the press wrote about (an Angora cat and a dog) probably did not exist.
Table of contents
Rooster Arrives
Shortly after his first election in 1896, the new Republican president received a rooster as a gift from a Michigan Democrat. The Democrat’s note indicated that the gift was meant as a joke—“a little nonsense.”
The main political topic of the day was hard money vs. soft money. The Democrats, with William Jennings Bryan, were campaigning for “bimetallism,” relying on both gold and silver.
The Democrat’s note said they had looked for the biggest and loudest rooster they could find, because they wanted the new president to have the “gold standard” of roosters. Along with the rooster, they sent a silver-colored perch. The note suggested that the gold standard could be supported by silver, just as the rooster could perch on silver-colored metal.
It’s not clear how long the rooster was kept by the McKinleys, but contemporary media writes that there were other roosters at the Executive Mansion then. Given that this was the late 19th century, perhaps the kitchen staff kept egg-laying chickens and a rooster or two.
About the McKinleys
A reporter from the Tribune Chronicle in Warren, Ohio, has the best explanation of the McKinley household and pets. (William McKinley was from Niles, Ohio, but Warren, Ohio, would have been the nearest large town.) The article by Pat Finan says that the McKinleys were the first presidential family since Andrew Johnson to move into the White House without pets.
As a young man, McKinley moved to Canton, Ohio, in 1867 to establish a law practice. In Canton, he met Ida Saxton. She was from a well-to-do family but her father saw that she was restless at home so he suggested she take a job as a teller at his bank in Canton.
It was at the bank that Ida met McKinley. Within a few years, the couple married. From the beginning they were very devoted to each other.
Finan points out that during their early married life, the McKinleys lived in rental properties as they moved to fulfill McKinley’s political duties. After Canton, they moved to Washington while he was in the House of Representatives. They returned to Ohio in 1892 when McKinley became governor. Rental properties and frequent moves would have made pet ownership challenging.
Family Loss
The McKinleys also suffered family loss. Their first daughter, Katherine, was born on Christmas Day in 1871. Two years later a second daughter was born but lived less than a year. Two years after that, daughter Katherine died of typhoid fever.
The second birth had been hard on Ida McKinley’s health. With the deaths of both children within just a few years, she was deeply depressed. She later developed epilepsy, which confined their lifestyle even more. Though Ida and William decided he should continue with his career, his devotion to her remained constant.
Parrot as Gift
Parrots as pets were very popular in the late nineteenth century. Pet stores advertised in newspapers that readers could buy double yellow-headed Mexican parrots for as little as $10. (Finan’s article indicated that the friend who presented the parrot paid much more–$1300, possibly a typo?)
When the double yellow-headed Mexican parrot was presented to the McKinleys, the president was said to be delighted. He named the parrot “Washington Post,” but it is not clear why that name was chosen. The Post was a relatively small paper at that time. But perhaps McKinley and Post founder Stilson Hutchins were friends.
Though African Gray parrots are the ones best known for learning to speak, McKinley’s parrot did not disappoint. He came in speaking a few words of Spanish and quickly began adding to its vocabulary.
The parrot lived in a large cage outside the executive offices on the second floor of the White House. McKinley designated the bird as “official greeter.” The bird had a small vocabulary, and among the phrases he would say as people walked by was “Look at all the pretty girls.”
Washington Post also had musical ability. McKinley hummed tunes like “Yankee Doodle,” “Dixie,” or a favorite song of McKinley’s “Louisiana Lou” and the bird could hum the remainder of each tune.
Assassination
McKinley won his second-term, and shortly thereafter, he and Ida left Washington on a six-week tour of the United States. They traveled by rail through the South to the Southwest; then traveled up the Pacific coast before turning east again. Ida McKinley became ill in California, so the president shortened his schedule.
One of the last stops was at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. The president spoke before a crowd of about 50,000 people on September 5.
His assassin—Leon Czolgosz—was in the audience on the 5th but did not feel he had a clear shot at the president. Instead, he arrived at the smaller public event for McKinley at the Temple of Music on the fairgrounds the next day. This time he was able to get quite close and shot McKinley twice in the abdomen.
McKinley was taken to the Buffalo home of the exposition president. The doctors were only able to locate one of the two bullets. At first, it seemed McKinley might recover anyway. But by September 13, McKinley’s health worsened. He died during the night, at 2:15 a.m. on September 14.
It was reported that McKinley’s primary concern was how his staff would tell Ida.
What Happened to the Parrot?
With Ida in poor health, few expected that she would survive much after the death of her devoted husband. She was considered too fragile to attend the funeral in Washington, D.C., but rode the funeral train to Canton and sat outside the room where the service was held so that she could hear what was said.
The White House staff would have organized the removal of the McKinley items in preparation for the arrival of the incoming president, Teddy Roosevelt, who was moving in with his six children and numerous pets.
It is not clear what happened to McKinley’s parrot at that time, but a follow-up article in the Charlotte News (Charlotte, North Carolina) answers many questions. The article appeared on November 8, 1902. The bird is now referred to as “Loretta,” but it is also identified as the double yellow Mexican parrot that lived at the Executive Mansion.
The article (reporter not identified) says that after the death of the president, Loretta was sold to a resident of a “Western city.” But the new owners must not have loved Loretta the way the president did, as the reporter notes that Loretta had a couple of different homes before she was returned to the pet store in Washington from which she was originally purchased.
While there is no information on her next buyer, one would hope that someone else appreciated her superior ability to mimic voices and sounds…while keeping their fingers away from the cage. Loretta did bite!
McKinley Pet Stories That Don’t Add Up
The contemporary media proves to be unreliable on some issues, including the McKinley household and its pets. One report indicated that before her husband was president, Ida McKinley had a dog that became ill. A veterinarian was consulted and was able to bring the dog back to good health.
By the time, McKinley became president, the press writes that the veterinarian was rewarded for his fine work by being offered a spot as a doctor going off to take care of the injured during the Spanish-American War.
While being sent to war may be considered an “honor,” it’s not necessarily a gift to any family. With no opportunity to consult McKinley or the veterinarian, one can only suspect that there was another reason the vet was assigned to war duty. Perhaps he was there to tend to the horses and burros that were part of the battles.
Cat or No Cat?
A similar story plays out about an Angora cat that was said to belong to Ida McKinley before she moved to the White House. Once the McKinleys moved in, the cat gave birth to kittens. The press added into the story the names of the kittens. The two smaller kittens were supposedly named after Spanish leaders who were enemies of America. The press wrote that those two kittens came to a bad end.
But biographer Carl Sferrazza Anthony, who writes about many of the first ladies, says that he has never read anything authoritative about Ida owning an Angora cat. He also notes that she was a kind and gentle woman who would not have let anything bad happen to any pet belonging to the family.
Ida McKinley Returns to Canton
Ida Saxton McKinley lived the remainder of her life in Canton, Ohio. She supervised the building of the McKinley memorial until her death in 1907.