The "Ten Cent Jimmy" Story

Our 15th President of the United States

It was an ordinary day.  And the beginning of April can mean only one thing.  It is the birth month of the 15th President of the United States.  Know who that might have been?  If I tell you he caught a cold in May, 1868 which quickly worsened due to his advanced age, and he died on June 1, 1868.  

The entrance to Woodward Hill Cemetery.

How about if I told you he was the only President who happened to be Secretary of State before being elected President.  Not yet!   Well, maybe if I tell you he was known as "Ten Cent Jimmy", since he is said to have wanted to lower worker's wages to 10 cents a day.  Now you know ... right!  If  not, you certainly would know if I told you he was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery and I just took a photograph of his tombstone ... since most of you know by now that I live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Bingo!  President James Buchanan was born on April 23, 1791.  His presidency wasn't the best and he had a hard life after it because he was blamed for the civil war.  

President Buchanan's tombstone stands behind his name.

He even had a portraiture of himself hanging in the White House which had to be taken down and put in hiding so people wouldn't vandalize it.  And, his Lancaster sweetheart, Ann Coleman, to whom he was engaged briefly in 1819, committed suicide (now that's a whole other story).  But, what really stinks is that he has been ranked as one of the worst Presidents in history; actually, the worst.  No matter what, to me he had to do something right to have been elected President.  And, the house he lived in along Marietta Ave. in Lancaster, was absolutely beautiful.   That, plus, his grave site looks pretty neat, also.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Interesting photograph of newly elected President James Buchanan's inauguration in 1857.  His was the first inauguration that was documented with photography. 

This marker stands along South Queen Street, outside the cemetery.

American flag flys proudly above his grave site.