January 1901 the Victorian era ended after 63 years with the death of Queen Victoria. The age of royal rulers was ending in Europe and the anarchists were targeting monarchs for death.
In that same year in early September, Bessie Morris, a 34 year old summer resident of Sea Girt, and daughter of Elliston Morris the first cottage owner in Sea Girt, was traveling with the Society of Mayflower Descendants at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.
Second term President William McKinley supported increased activity with Latin America and planned to throw his popularity behind the event. He opened the fair with a speech on September 5, followed by an illumination of lights and a fireworks show. McKinley was due back on the 6th for additional ceremonies and a ‘meet and greet’.
Bess’s group from Philadelphia declined the opportunity to see the President. They were resting up for their banquet. In addition to the social elite at the event, Sir Hugh John McDonald, the Premier of Manitoba, and candidate for the Prime Minister of Canada would be attending with his wife Gertrude.
The women stayed at the finest hotel in Buffalo, the former home of President Millard Fillmore, the Castle Inn. Elizabeth was single, self sufficient and never married. While a modest Quaker, she was not shy about spending money on travel.
She was proud of her heritage. Her ancestors had fought in the American Revolution, and came to America with the first Pilgrims. As a girl, her dollhouse was built in 1823 by her great uncle Caspar Wistar whose family started the first glassworks in America. The dollhouse was preserved and was donated to Colonial Williamsburg.
At the Exposition, Leon Czolgosz was in the crowd with his handgun. The anarchist planned to shoot the President during his speech, but Czolgosz was jostled in the crowd and did not get a good chance.
Postcard of the Castle Inn 1901
Bess Morris’s Banquet Brochure
Leon looked for a better opportunity the next day. McKinley had become an expert at the “handshake line” and considered it a favorite part of the job, seeing up to 50 people per minute, despite the concerns of his staff.
Czolgosz lined up at 8:30AM with a $4.50 pistol in his pocket while McKinley took a tour of Niagara Falls. Returning to the fair, the President was led to the ornate Temple of Music where hundreds had lined up for the short meet-and-greet session. McKinley would grab the right hand of each man, leading him to continue walking while maintaining eye contact.
The security officials did not follow rules that required men to approach the president with open hands, due to the heat. Men were wiping their brows with handkerchiefs. The assassin hid his pistol under a handkerchief in his right hand. McKinley grabbed Leon’s left hand, thinking he was injured. The pistol put two shots to the President’s abdomen. McKinley told those who jumped on Czolgosz, “Go easy on him boys.”
One bullet hit a vest button and lodged harmlessly in the President’s clothes. The other penetrated deeply through McKinley’s stomach and lower organs.
Bessie wrote home to her parents in an unsettled tone:
“I scarcely know where to begin so much has happened since we left home, and we are all in a tremble with this terrible attack on the President had it not been that the Mayflower banquet [that] came last evening and we were resting up for it, we too would have been in the crowd at Music Hall yesterday and might have been crushed, and not only that but the papers say that the trolley cars coming in from the grounds were stopped by the mobs but no one was hurt.”
She also wrote that she wished to be taking a refreshing dip in the ocean at Avocado, one of her father’s two cottages at Sea Girt.
The banquet was held, but given the circumstances around the shooting, the mood was very reserved.
President McKinley died of complications from gangrene eight days later, leaving Teddy Roosevelt to become the youngest President to date at age 42. The third presidential assassination in 36 years caused the funding and formalization of the Secret Service to protect President Roosevelt and all other Chief Executives afterward. The assassin was tried and put to death.
Teddy Roosevelt visited Sea Girt the following summer, as the National Rifle Association moved its national shooting competition from Creedmore Long Island to the Sea Girt National Guard Camp in 1902.
Landing near Long Branch by yacht, Roosevelt took the train south to Sea Girt and spoke in front of a crowd of over 10,000 from the Governor’s summer residence at the Camp. The crowd and military scuffled a bit with the Secret Service who tried to keep the crowd back from the popular TR.
Roosevelt in a 1902 Library of Congress Photo
1887 Marriott Morris photo of the National Guard Camp MCM Collection Library Company Philadelphia
The President promised better weaponry for the troops and stressed the importance of marksmanship skills for American boys. A shortcoming revealed by long Civil War battles was that Americans were woefully under-trained in firearm shooting and that Europe had emphasized marksmanship as a sport. Over the next generation, shooting contests with a President’s Cup would be awarded at Sea Girt each summer. Long a sleepy and underpopulated resort, the town was now on the political map. The Morris family was in Sea Girt in 1902 but left no record of attending the Roosevelt speech.
Bess Morris inherited Avocado, the Sea Girt cottage where she spent summers. Bess never married and cared for her Mother Marth Canby Morris. She supported many charitable organizations, including the Germantown Employment Society for Women. Elizabeth suffered a stroke in 1942 and died in 1947, leaving her $400,000 fortune to her brother, Marriott.
Bess at Sea Girt with Jet the dog MCM Collection Library Company of Philadelphia