COLUMBUS — Bouquets of carnations are on display at the Ohio Statehouse, not to mark the start of the new legislative term or welcome the public to the largely empty building, but to honor a former President from Ohio.
The center of state government is mostly quiet because COVID restrictions have a majority of state employees, including Gov. Mike DeWine, working from home. Almost all of the legislative hearings being scheduled do not begin until next week.
The flowers are to commemorate some history with a Miami Valley connection.
In 1903 Lewis G. Reynolds of Dayton founded the Carnation League of America. It was to honor President William McKinley, an Ohio native, who had been assassinated in 1901. Reynolds encouraged people across the country to wear a red carnation to remember McKinley on his birthday, January 29th. A display in the Statehouse Rotunda tells the story of McKinley’s birth in Niles, Ohio, his time at the White House, death at the hands of an assassin in Buffalo, New York, and the flowery tribute that came from Dayton.
To this day, members of the State Legislature wear red carnations at the start of their term in January to honor McKinley’s memory. A statue of McKinley rises above the pedestrian traffic along High Street in front of the Statehouse. It is the largest monument on the grounds and is the only statue of a former governor at the Statehouse. A statue of Former Gov. Jim Rhodes was placed on the grounds initially in the 1980′s, but was later relocated to stand in front of the Rhodes Office Tower on Broad Street across from the Statehouse.
Cox Media Group
