The "So, Just Who Was This Lady Named Harriet Lane?" Story

President James Buchanan from Lancaster, PA

It was an ordinary day.  Reading a few online stories about President James Buchanan who was the 15th President of the United States.  He was a resident of Lancaster, Pennsylvania and was the only President who never married.  But, he wasn't without a woman in the White House, since his niece acted as the First Lady for the four years he was the President.  Miss Harriet Lane was from Mercersberg which is a little over 100 miles west of Lancaster County where James lived.  Harriet was born May 9, 1830 and was the youngest child of Elliott Tole Lane and Jane Ann Buchanan Lane.  Her mother died when she was nine years old and her father died two years later.  

A young Harriet Lane

Her favorite uncle, her mother's brother James, who was an unmarried Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania, agreed to be her legal guardian as well as her sister's guardian.  He eventually enrolled them in boarding schools in Charleston, Virginia (which later became West Virginia) and later at The Academy of the Visitation Convent in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C.  James was appointed Minister to Great Britain in 1853 and took the 23 year-old Harriet with him to London where she received considerable attention for her beauty and vivaciousness.  

Harriet Lane as "First Lady".

She was given the rank of Ambassador's Wife by Queen Victoria, but returned two years later to the USA, unmarried.  Back in the states she became known as the "Democratic Queen."  Then in 1957 her uncle James was voted President of the United States and she became a popular hostess in the White House.  Women copied her hair style as well as dressed as she did.  Parents named their daughters after her and the popular song "Listen to the Mockingbird" was dedicated to her.  She used her position in the White House to promote one of her favorite social causes; the living conditions of Native Americans in reservations.  She also enjoyed inviting musicians and artists to the White House.  After four years as President, James was voted out so he and his niece returned to Lancaster where they resided at Wheatland which is one of my favorite places to visit, being that it is only a few miles from my home.  

Wheatland on President Ave. in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

She fell in love with a young banker named Henry Elliott Johnston four years later and after receiving her uncle's approval, married Henry on January 11, 1866.  Her married life was marred by the deaths of her two sons to rheumatic fever at the ages of fifteen and twelve.  She and her husband chose to fund a pediatric medical facility as a comforting place to provide treatment for children requiring lengthy care.  But, two years later her husband died of pneumonia.  

Her bedroom at Wheatland.

When Harriet died of cancer in 1903, her estate provided a sum of over $400,000 to establish the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children as a memorial to the Johnstons' two sons.  In 1906 the home, known as the Harriet Lane Clinic was built at The John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland and was the first children's clinic in the United States associated with a medical school.  After she died her remains were buried in the Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore.  She will always be remembered for being the First Lady of the Whitehouse as well as a champion of fighting children's diseases.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

An 1869 drawing of Wheatland.

This was Harriet's traveling case showing stamps
indicating places she had visited.