207.1177.1-4

On October 24, 1896, presidential candidates William Jennings Bryan and William McKinley signed the hotel register at the City Hotel in Roland, Iowa, in Story County. Both stayed over one night. Bryan, the Democrat, had spoken in Minneapolis, Minnesota, two days before. It appears that the two men, then winding down their campaigns, converged by chance in Roland as they were returning eastward just a few days before the election. McKinley, the Republican, defeated Bryan in that November, 1896, election. This photo is of the City Hotel's register showing both men's signatures.