Buried: Woodward Hill Cemetery, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Fifteenth President - 1857-1861
Born: April 23, 1791, in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania
Died: 8:30 a.m. on June 1, 1868, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Age at death: 77
Cause of death: Pneumonia
Final words: “Oh Lord, God Almighty, as Thou wilt.”
Admission to Woodward Hill Cemetery: Free
James Buchanan is known as our only bachelor president. Less familiar is the story of Buchanan’s early romance with a young woman named Anne Coleman. She died suddenly in 1819, shortly after they had quarreled. Buchanan suffered when rumors of suicide circulated, along with claims that he was only interested in her money. He declared that his happiness would be “buried with her in the grave” and that the cause of their breakup would be revealed in a letter released after his death.
It’s said that Buchanan first ran for Congress in 1820 to escape his grief and the gossip mills in his hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. However, rumormongering has followed him into the modern age. Buchanan’s choice of a Washington roommate—flamboyant fellow senator William Rufus DeVane King—has led to speculation about his personal life. Lacking a wife to handle White House social duties, Buchanan asked his niece, Harriet Lane, to serve as his first lady when he won the presidency in 1856.
The inscription on Buchanan’s grave
Weary of the slavery issue, he declined to seek a second term and left the White House for his Wheatland estate, where he received a hero’s welcome and settled into a quiet retirement. He lived just seven more years. In his final days, Buchanan suffered from rheumatism and dysentery. These maladies left him susceptible to infection. In May of 1868, Buchanan contracted pneumonia. Sensing that the end was near, he did not leave his bedroom. James Buchanan died alone on June 1, 1868, at the age of seventy-seven.
The city of Lancaster held a public meeting in his honor. His body lay on view in the main hall at Wheatland. Mourners and curiosity seekers found the former president dressed in his typical white tie and high collar shirt. A two-and-a-half mile funeral parade followed, with bands, 125 carriages, and thousands of onlookers.
Historic marker at Woodward Hill Cemetery
Two days before his death Buchanan gave final instructions to Hiram Swarr, the executor of his estate. First, he wanted a simple obelisk for his tomb. Second, the letter explaining his broken engagement was to be burned, unopened. Both orders were obeyed. He was buried at Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster, where a white marble monument stands today.
Touring James Buchanan’s Tomb at Woodward Hill Cemetery
Woodward Hill Cemetery is located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It is open daily during the daylight hours. Admission is free.
From Philadelphia: Take the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76) West to exit 21. Drive south on Highway 222. Highway 222 turns into Prince Street. From Prince Street turn left onto Hager Street. On reaching Queen Street turn right.
From Harrisburg: Take Highway 283 east to the Harrisburg Pike exit. Take Harrisburg Pike west into the city of Lancaster. Harrisburg Pike turns into Harrisburg Avenue. Turn left onto Prince Street until reaching Hager Street; then turn left onto Queen Street.
To find Buchanan’s grave, bear to the right after entering the cemetery gates. Climb up the small hill and head toward the red brick church. President Buchanan’s gravesite is located to the left of the church.
Also buried at Woodward Hill is Frederick Muhlenberg, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1789-1791 and 1793-1795.
For additional information
Woodward Hill Cemetery
South Queen Street
Lancaster, PA 17602
Lancaster County Historical Society
230 North President Avenue
Lancaster, PA 17603
Phone: (717) 392-4633
www.lancasterhistory.org
“Buchanan proved no more successful as a prophet than a president.”
—Richard Norton Smith
Before going to work as a screenwriter for the Weinstein brothers, Shakespeare observed that, “the evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.” The sentiment applies with unmistakable force to James Buchanan, the sine qua non of executive enfeeblement. The swashbuckling Theodore Roosevelt liked nothing better than to contrast “Buchanan presidents” and “Lincoln presidents,” leaving no doubt as to in which camp he belonged. Reproached for his conduct on the eve of Fort Sumter, Buchanan in retirement wrote a self-serving memoir, selected a burial spot in Lancaster’s Woodward Hills Cemetery, and composed an inscription for his white marble tombstone. “I have no regret for any public act of my life, and history will vindicate my memory,” he told those gathered around his sickbed in June 1868. Buchanan proved no more successful as a prophet than a president.
—RNS
James Buchanan’s gravesite