A Buchanan Baby

This photo was found among the Buchanan family photographs of Mary Isabelle "Mollie" (Buchanan) Clark. Her daughter, Ella Mae, believes the unmarked photo to have been taken of one of Mollie's two little sisters who died very young.1

John Leoin "Lee" Buchanan & Ocie Ella (Bowler) Buchanan were the parents of six children -- five girls and one boy -- all born in Center Township, Greene County, PA. Joanna Wilma and Fern, the third and fourth daughters, died within a few months of each other in late 1911 and early 1912. Family tradition identifies the baby in the picture as one of those daughters.

Marilee (Buchanan) Martin, granddaughter of John Leoin "Lee" Buchanan & Ocie Ella (Bowler) Buchanan, remembers her grandmother Ocie's story of the nights her two little daughters died. Ocie awoke in the night and saw a white, spherical image floating up through the room. She woke up her husband, Lee, and told him that something was wrong. When they went to check on the children, they found that little Wilma had died. On another night only weeks later the scene repeated itself. Ocie woke up Lee again, but this time she already knew that the baby, Fern, was gone.

JOANNA WILMA BUCHANAN Articles Obituary Photo Album Parents: John Leoin "Lee" Buchanan & Ocie Ella Bowler Siblings: Mary Isabelle Buchanan | Margaret Buchanan | Fern Buchanan | Edna Buchanan | William Roy Buchanan Spouse:   Children:   Buchanan Family Tree Sources For Additional Research Census   1910 Lee J. Buchanan household, 1910 U.S. census, population schedule, Center Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania, ED 96, SD 22, page 149B (stamped)/3 (written), dwelling 50, family 52; National Archives microfilm publication T624, roll 1348.

FERN BUCHANAN Parents: John Leoin "Lee" Buchanan & Ocie Ella Bowler Siblings: Mary Isabelle Buchanan | Margaret Buchanan | Joanna Wilma Buchanan | Edna Buchanan | William Roy Buchanan Spouse:   Children:   Buchanan Family Tree