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The Statue Projects of Poland, Ohio


“Freedom Fighters” by Tom Antonishak
-Peterson Park is the home to the only statue in America that depicts
Gens. Thaddeus Kosciuszko and Kazimierz Pulaski together.




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Now available......tabletop version of “American (Revolution) War Heroes” Click Photo to go to sculpture store!


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Polish Youngstown visits Peterson Park on Feb 20th to view possible site for the new location of the World War One and World War Two Polonia Veterans Monument.


Left to right: Ken Milenovic (Ohio Commander, PAVA [Polish Legion of American Veterans]), Daniel Flowers,
Lisa Lotze (Polish Youngstown), Rick Cyngier, Aundréa Cika Heschmeyer(Polish Youngstown), John Cyngier
(Commander District 9 PAVA) Honorary Counsul of the Republic of Poland Dr. Jan Napoleon Saykiewicz.




Standing in front of the monument model: Dr. Jan Napoleon Saykiewicz and Mr. John Cyngier.


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Did you know: President William McKinley considered Poland his hometown.

Presidential Poland..............

William McKinley, Jr., our nation's 25th President, spent his formative years from age 9 to 24 in Poland. McKinley was born January 29th, 1843 in Niles, the seventh of nine children. In 1852, the family moved to Poland so the McKinley children could have the advantage of Poland's fine schools.  McKinley's father operated and owned businesses using the iron furnaces still operating in Niles.  He continued living in Niles, visiting his family in Poland on weekends.  The early 1803 Poland "Hopewell" furnace had ceased operations long before.

The McKinley's first rented a house on the east side of Main Street. This house later became part of the Johnston Hardware Store building.  The new office building located on this site being 101 S. Main Street was designed to show the outline of the original McKinley house at the south end of the building.  In 1854 the McKinley's purchased a fine family home at 210 S. Main Street which remained the family's home until around 1875.  Its site is now a parking lot for the Home Savings and Loan/College St. Cafe building.

McKinley for a couple years attended the Poland Public Schools (in the Union Elementary School Building on Riverside) but in 1854 when Lee's Poland Academy began accepting boys he enrolled there. In 1859 at age 16 McKinley graduated from the academy.  When McKinley first attended Lee's Academy it was located at 24 College St. (just behind the Wittenauer Pharmacy) in the beautiful white green, shuttered building.   In McKinley's time, this building was directly on Main Street. In 1855, the academy moved down College Street into a large 80' x 60' three story structure which, lasted until 1895.  This building's remains became incorporated into the Poland Seminary High School building which presently serves as Poland's middle school.  The boys' dormitory for the academy is now the Panelmatic Building adjacent to the library at 307 South Main Street. Lee's academy became the Poland Union Seminary in 1862.

McKinley was a diligent but not outstanding student at the Academy. He loved and showed a skill at oratory.  McKinley organized and was the first President of the Academy's "Everett Literary and Debating Society" named after America's then foremost orator Edward Everett.

Upon graduation, McKinley attended Allegheny, College, in Meadville, PA but had to leave after a few months because of ill health. He returned to Poland and for a year and a half taught in a Poland Township one room school house similar to the restored school house located on Rte. 224 at Struthers Road just east o{ Poland. McKinley walked the two and a half miles to and from school each day.  He also worked as Poland's assistant postmaster in the post office (Feast House Antiques) at 221 S. Main Street across the street from his home.

McKinley's hopes of returning to college were broken by the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.  He and many Poland youths responded to an enlistment rally at the Old Stone Tavern.  The Poland boys became Company E of the Ohio Twenty-third Regiment.  The Twenty-third made up entirely of three year enlistees became one of the strongest regiments in the Ohio Army being blessed by the leadership of many officers including Major Rutherford B. Hayes, subsequently Governor of Ohio and President. Hayes liked McKinley and following McKinley's bravery at Antietam personally recommended to Ohio's war governor David Tod of Youngstown that he be promoted to lieutenant. McKinley later served under Generals Cook and Sheridan who had President Lincoln promote McKinley to Major in 1865.  Thereafter McKinley in his political campaigns and personal life was always referred to as "Major McKinley."

Following the Civil War, at age 22, McKinley returned to Poland and became a law clerk. Then McKinley attended Albany Law School in New York. After almost a year of study, McKinley was admitted to the bar in 1867.  His sister Anna persuaded him to come live with her and start his law practice in Canton which thereafter was McKinley's home. Even after moving to Canton, McKinley's Poland contacts remained strong.  From 1876 to 1890 he was congressman for the "Mahoning" district which included Poland and visited Poland on many occasions.

In 1893 when McKinley was running for a second term as Ohio's Governor, and already was highly touted for the 1896 Republican 'presidential nomination, the bizarre McKinley-Walker financial crisis occurred. However, he won a second term as Ohio's Governor with an 80,000 vote plurality.  This resounding victory helped propel McKinley to the 1896 Republican presidential nomination and subsequently the presidency.  On September 6, 1901, McKinley was shot. Following medical treatment he died on September 14, 1901.  His dying words were "Good bye all, good bye, it is God's way. His will be done not ours." Fortunately, many of Poland's century buildings and structures so familiar to McKinley and symbolic of his life and time remain.

(Content taken from 1997 article by Steve Meloy of Poland)

Did You Know?

*Poland was the first township in the Connecticut Western Reserve. The land was given to the State of Connecticut by King Charles in 1662.
*Poland was first known as Fowler's after Jonathan Fowler and his family, the first permanent settlers on the banks of the Yellow Creek.
*From 1855-1860 there was a Law School in Poland located at 24 College Street. Ten to 12 students attended before the school was moved to Cleveland.
*Long before he was President, William McKinley roomed with George F. Arrel also from Poland when they attended Albany Law School in New York. Arrel later became Judge of the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
*Historic figure Ida Tarbell, a muckraker-journalist taught at the Poland Seminary from 1881-1882.
*In 1887 residents erected a memorial in the Poland Riverside Cemetery to honor those from Poland who died in various Civil War battles

*Content written & edited by Jessica L. Ehrenberg

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The William McKinley Project

The William McKinley statue: The Poland Years -studying for Albany”

William McKinley called Poland, Ohio his home town. He lived in Poland Village from the age of 8 to 24.