<P> It is difficult to interpret the optimism with which the President's physicians looked for his recovery . There was obviously the most serious danger that his wounds would become septic . In that case, he would almost certainly die, since drugs to control infection did not exist...(Prominent New York City physician) Dr. McBurney was by far the worst offender in showering sanguine assurances on the correspondents . As the only big - city surgeon on the case, he was eagerly questioned and quoted, and his rosy prognostications largely contributed to the delusion of the American public . </P> <P> Unknown to the doctors, the gangrene that would kill him was growing on the walls of his stomach, slowly poisoning his blood . On the morning of September 13, McKinley took a turn for the worse . Relatives and friends gathered around the death bed . At 2: 15 a.m. on September 14, President McKinley died . Theodore Roosevelt had rushed back and took the oath of office as president in Buffalo . Czolgosz, put on trial for murder nine days after McKinley's death, was found guilty, sentenced to death on September 26, and executed by electric chair on October 29, 1901 . </P> <P> According to Gould, "The nation experienced a wave of genuine grief at the news of McKinley's passing ." The stock market, faced with sudden uncertainty, suffered a steep decline--almost unnoticed in the mourning . The nation focused its attention on the casket that made its way by train, first to Washington, where it first lay in the East Room of the Executive Mansion, and then in state in the Capitol, and then was taken to Canton . A hundred thousand people passed by the open casket in the Capitol Rotunda, many having waited hours in the rain; in Canton, an equal number did the same at the Stark County Courthouse on September 18 . The following day, a funeral service was held at the First Methodist Church; the casket was then sealed and taken to the McKinley house, where relatives paid their final respects . It was then transported to the receiving vault at West Lawn Cemetery in Canton, to await the construction of the memorial to McKinley already being planned . </P> <P> There was a widespread expectation that Ida McKinley would not long survive her husband; one family friend stated, as William McKinley lay dying, that they should be prepared for a double funeral . This did not occur; the former first lady accompanied her husband on the funeral train . Leech noted "the circuitous journey was a cruel ordeal for the woman who huddled in a compartment of the funeral train, praying that the Lord would take her with her Dearest Love". She was thought too weak to attend the services in Washington or Canton, although she listened at the door to the service for her husband in her house on North Market Street . She remained in Canton for the remainder of her life, setting up a shrine in her house, and often visiting the receiving vault, until her death at age 59 on May 26, 1907 . She died only months before the completion of the large marble monument to her husband in Canton, which was dedicated by President Roosevelt on September 30, 1907 . William and Ida McKinley are interred there with their daughters, atop a hillside overlooking the city of Canton . </P>

Who is the only man known to have witnessed the assassination of 3 different presidents