Harriet Lane Johnston May 9, 1830 - July 3, 1903 John Henry Brown, Harriet Lane Johnston 1878 Smithsonian American Art Museum Bequest of May S. Kennedy Printed on the occasion of The Harriet Lane Johnston Symposium June 10, 2015 Edwards Room in Keil Hall at Mercersburg Academy Presented by the Mercersburg Historical Society Harriet Lane Johnston Joan C. McCulloh Harriet Lane’s education, both formal and seven hundred residents was busy. In addition to informal, prepared her well for the responsibilities her father, who had a dry goods store but seems to that lay ahead of her. have left that business about the time of her birth, Harriet Rebecca Lane, later Harriet Lane John- several other merchants had stores.The town was ston, niece of President James Buchanan, was busy with cabinetmakers, shoemakers, wagon hostess in the White House during her uncle’s makers, carpenters, chair makers, saddlers, coo- Presidency from 1857 to 1861.The daughter of pers, blacksmiths, a potter, weavers, silversmiths, Elliott Tole Lane, whose family was from the area and others, a little self-reliant community. of Charles Town, Virginia, now West Virginia, and Her father, Elliott Lane, was important in Jane Buchanan Lane, she was born in Mercersburg the affairs of the town. When the German Re- on May 9, 1830, in a large brick house across the formed Church placed an advertisement in area street from what had been her Grandfather Bu- newspapers in search of a place to move its high chanan’s store and home. school and seminary then located in York, Elliott She was baptized on June 10, 1830, in the local Lane was one of the local men who signed a letter Presbyterian Church of the Upper West Conoco- indicating that men in Mercersburg would offer cheague by the Reverend David Elliott who had $10,000 to the church if it moved its school here. officiated at the marriage of her parents on May The church accepted the proposal of the local men 10, 1813. Next to the youngest of seven children, so that what became Marshall College, named for four of whom lived to maturity, she spent her early the late Chief Justice John Marshall, was founded years in Mercersburg in which she attended Mrs. here in 1835 with a charter granted in 1836. Mr. Sarah Young’s Female Seminary in a house called Lane became one of the trustees and was the chair Locust Grove on Main Street, now the site of the of the committee to construct the first building. MMPW Fire Company. According to tradition Little is known about Harriet’s first nine years, as recorded in Old Mercersburg she was a “merry, the years she spent in Mercersburg. But some of mischievous girl, never so happy as when ring- the experiences she must have had are known. leader of schoolgirl pranks.” When Harriet was born, her uncle, James Buchan- In 1830 when Harriet Lane was born in what an, a Democrat and supporter of President An- was probably the most elegant house in town and drew Jackson, was serving in the House of Repre- into a prominent family, the town with its six or sentatives. Since in 1831 Jackson had appointed Buchanan to become minister to Russia, to which appointment he was confirmed in 1832, the family had a further personal tie to current events that would continue as Buchanan was appointed to the Senate in 1834 and elected to the Senate in 1837. Since during all of Harriet’s early life Buchanan was active in national politics, she surely would have seen at times and heard much of her uncle. She would have known about death. Certain- ly when she looked out the windows in the front rooms of her home, she would have known that her Grandfather Buchanan nine years 2 The Lane House on North Main Street in Mercersburg before her birth had died from injuries he sus- College, ladies, students, citizens, and Captain tained when his horse bolted and threw him out Bowles’ Light Infantry, and went to a picnic. After of his carriage in the alley adjacent to his store the meal the men proposed forty-five toasts, and home. She would have known about other thirteen regular toasts and thirty-two impromptu deaths as one brother had died at age two before toasts, one of which was to “James Buchanan, one her own birth, another brother, William, died of Pennsylvania’s brightest sons,” then a United when she was about four years old, and a third State Senator. Elliott Lane’s toast was to “Marshall brother, eighteen year old Thomas, died when College, the intelligence and urbanity of the pro- Harriet was aged five leaving two brothers and fessors; the moral deportment and assiduity of the one sister, James Buchanan Lane (1814 - 1850), students give high promise of its future usefulness Elliott Eskridge Lane (1823 - 1857), and Mary as a nursery of science in our country.” This seems Elizabeth Speer Lane (1826 - 1855). to have been a most exciting day. She also would have experienced some local But not all was festive in this time in Mercers- events. One of the most exciting, it seems, was burg and the surrounding area. This was a time the Fourth of July celebration in 1836. On that of tensions over slavery not just elsewhere but day the citizens first went to the local Method- also in south-central Pennsylvania. In 1837 when ist Church, heard a sermon, then formed a pa- at the end of July Jonathan Blanchard, a young rade, consisting of the president of the day, the worker in the American Anti-slavery Society, vice-presidents, one of whom was Elliott Lane, which had been founded in 1833, came to town, the secretaries, orator and reader, the com- a riot, in which Marshall College students were 3 mittee of arrangements, faculty of Marshall predominant, occurred in front of the Methodist church after an evening service become a fun-loving, mischie- brown sugar in tea, restrictions there. Young Blanchard, who vous, independent minded girl, in dress, and stiff necks and cold could not obtain a room in the probably a bit of a challenge for hearts.” Exactly how long she local hotel or a room in which her bachelor uncle. The account attended the school is unknown. to lecture, was able to rent a is that one day when Buchanan It was during this time at room from Daniel Kroh, a Mar- was returning to his home on the school run by the Misses shall College student, who ran East King Street in Lancaster, Crawford that James Buchanan a boardinghouse for students. he saw young Harriet pushing a and Harriet began their long Kroh was helpful to Blanchard wheelbarrow filled with wood. correspondence that lasted until and offered him protection from When asked what she was doing, his death in 1868. Although the mob. A few days after the she later destroyed much of the incident Elliott Lane brought correspondence, many letters charges in a faculty meeting at remain. On his side the letters Marshall College against Dan- were characterized by deep iel Kroh as follows: “of having “When she went to Lancaster, concern for her education, her disturbed the peace of the Town perhaps he first sent her to a deportment, her growth as a by entertaining a Mr. Blanchard young lady, and her written sen- at his house, a lecturer on Ab- day school there. By this time tence structure and punctuation olition, secondly of having she had become a fun-loving, and are alternately affectionate, permitted him to lecture in his mischievous, independent didactic, sometimes a bit hu- house….” Lane’s actions at the morous, sometimes censorious, time of this event imply that minded girl, probably a bit of sometimes severe. All, though, he was opposed to the work of a challenge for show a deep commitment to her abolitionists. Again exactly what her bachelor uncle....” upbringing and reveal not only the Lane children knew of these his commitment to her growth occurrences is unknown, but but also his love and concern these local events were a part of for their other family members. their world. she replied that she was taking As she grew older, she became But all of this changed as the wood to a black servant, Old his confidante as he shared both when Harriet was nine years old, Aunt Tabitha. She seems to have political news and his deeper her mother, aged forty-six, died; been spirited in school also. It thoughts with her. The impor- when she was ten, her father, has been asserted that Buchanan tance of this correspondence to aged fifty-six, died. Sometime warned her that, if her deport- both of them cannot be overly after the death of her father, ment in school became faulty, estimated. James Buchanan, exactly when is he would send her to another On February 16, 1842, during unknown, took her into his care school in Lancaster, operated by the time she attended the Miss as he at various times cared for two unmarried sisters, the Miss- Crawfords’ school Buchanan several other nieces and neph- es Crawford. He did send her wrote to her from Washington: ews. It is believed that Harriet to the school in which the strict “My Dear Harriet, Your letter first lived with some of her Lane discipline of the Misses Craw- afforded me very great plea- relatives for a brief time. When ford interfered with her mischie- sure. There is no wish nearer my she went to Lancaster, perhaps vous, fun-loving spirit, so that heart than you should become he first sent her to a day school she was less than happy there an amiable and intelligent there.