"This swallowtail coat was worn by Mr. Albert Maack of Chicago, Illinois, as a member of the electoral college from the state of Illinois when the electoral college convened for the election of President William McKinley. I do not know if it was in 1896 for the first term or in 1900 for the second term of President McKinley (whose own history is filled with many monumental incidents.)" [An error went uncorrected here. It was actually 1904, Roosevelt's election.]
        "I have been impressed that this man, my grandfather (who died before my life began) represented the classic early America story (too often sneered at now in 1979.)
     "He and my grandmother (Wilhelmina Drier) were both immigrants from East Germany (Prussia) in the mid 1800's. They established a home on the outskirts of Chicago and he became reasonably successful in the real estate and grain business then as a civil leader. He died of diabetes and its complications before the discovery of insulin.
      "One may wonder what this coat is doing here?
      "Of six children of this union, three have died in Bedford. The oldest daughter, Ida Maack at 84; the second son, Herbert George Maack, at 96; and the youngest daughter, Elsa Maack Kerr, at 86. (One son survives at 75 years, away from here.)
      "In view of the above - that Bedford, tho remote from the roots, seems to have been destined to be the terminus of this many of this family, I think it appropriate that this garment find its home here.
      "So, in remembrance of Albert and Wilhelmina Maack, and their children, who spent their last days here, Ida Maack, Herbert Maack and Elsa Maack Kerr, this garment is presented to the Lawrence County Historical Museum."
      Kerr also gave the museum the world's first medical paper on White Finger Disease which was compiled in Bedford in 1918 by a woman doctor sent here by the U.S. Public Health Service, and the address of the first president of the State Medical Association, Dr. Benjamin Newland, who was a Lawrence County physician. Newland gave the speech in 1879.
     Caption under photo: "Mike Vaughn, Times-Mail photographer, tried on the swallowtail coat given to the Lawrence County Historical Society Museum by Dr. Donald M. Kerr, left. The coat belonged to Kerr's grandfather who wore it when he was a member of the Electoral College that elected President William McKinley. The high silk hat has been in the museum for some time." [Roosevelt, not McKinley]

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