When it comes to finding an amazing old photograph from an almost forgotten past, Greene County historical researcher Candice Buchanan can’t be beat. But sometimes it’s the old photograph that finds her.
Case in point—Sarah (Bonar) Buchanan McConnell (1850-1871).
Buchanan happily admits that Sarah, or Sadie, to those who loved her, is one of the two long-lost cousins who made her the passionate genealogist she is today.
It was during her 14th birthday party romp with friends through Green Mount Cemetery—“We were looking for the haunted mausoleum!”—that Buchanan came face to face, or rather face to tombstone, with cousins Sadie and Albert “Bert” Buchanan. Sadie died of illness at age 21, and Albert “Bert” Buchanan was killed in action during World War I at age 26. It was a defining moment for this wide-eyed teen. “I think I bonded with them because I was so young myself.”
There were no family photos, but it thrilled Buchanan finally to be face to face with Sadie when she attended Waynesburg College and discovered her posing with fellow graduates in the class photo of 1868. “Thanks to that preserved image in the school archives, we had this reunion.”
Buchanan would discover later that cousin Bert was one of the 17 “Rain Day Boys” who died in battle during World War I on July 28-29, 1918 in France. The door to the past these cousins opened put Buchanan on a career path that has led to her present job as Reference Librarian of Local History and Genealogy at the Library of Congress.
Buchanan now lives in Suitland, MD, but maintains her hometown ties with regular visits and Internet availability. She returned to her alma mater on February 22 to present her slideshow lecture “We Will Do Great Things—Waynesburg’s Early Female Alumnae and the Success of Coeducation” as part of the Glenn A. and Jane L. Crosby Humanities Lectureship at Alumni Hall. Her research into the lives of these trailblazing women grads is a glimpse into a world where women rarely got public notice, yet, like Waynesburg College co-founder Margaret Belle Miller (1826-1874) were the ones who lead the charge for equality of the sexes in higher education.
“When I began to work with Glenn Toothman at Memory Medallion, Sadie and Bert were the first two Memory Medallions I drafted for my own family,” Buchanan shares. “Sadie is very important to me. I come at my interest in the school’s (Waynesburg University) history from many angles. The early female graduates, including my grandma, are most important.”
Buchanan’s third generation alumni roots at Waynesburg College go back on to grandmother Sara Livingood Buchanan who graduated in 1938, and dad John “Buck” Buchanan who graduated in 1975. As we texted back and forth for this story, she sent me a photo of the three of them together and smiling in 2008 at Sara’s 70th class reunion in Alumni Hall.
Buchanan graduated in 2002 and collaborated with Toothman, who had his own family member in the fateful 1918 battle that claimed cousin Bert. Together they did the research, traveled to France to visit the infamous Glimpittes Woods where the battle took place, then published “The Rain Day Boys” in time for the 100th anniversary in 2018.
Buchanan’s years of tracking down and archiving Greene County’s genealogy has been an inspiration for others who have been adding their own ancestors to the mix of those who settled here since the days of the Western Frontier.
These records, anecdotes, and large-limbed family trees are on file, not only at Cornerstone and the Library of Congress, but can be added to, browsed and exclaimed over—Hello, second cousin once removed!—at Greene Connections, Buchanan’s genealogy page on Facebook, or by going online at GreeneConnections.com
Recently, Buchanan was delighted to find another long-lost image of Sadie, now a beautiful young matron, along with a photo of her dashing husband Will McConnell (1848 -1931) for sale, while searching for items associated with Waynesburg on eBay. “After my years of researching her, I recognized her immediately!” All doubt was removed when she examined the original photos and handwritten captions and saw both identified by name. Buchanan shared the photos on her personal Facebook page, along with all the exciting details of how Sadie and Will finally made it home to Greene County. Buchanan’s research tells us Sadie was the third daughter of attorney James Andrew Jackson Buchanan and that she married William Barnet McConnell, a young law student, on September 9, 1869. The newlyweds lived with Sadie’s parents in Waynesburg until they moved to live with Will’s parents in Angola, Indiana “between the summers of 1870-71.”
There, Sadie soon fell ill with a malaria fever known then as “dumb ague” and returned to her parents’ home in Waynesburg where she lived out the last six weeks of her life.
Sadie’s stone, the one Buchanan happened upon as an impressionable teen, has these Jane Austinesque words of grief, written by a Will, engraved upon its back:
“I place this tablet to mark the last resting place of her I loved so well. Her educated mind and Christian heart ordered her love as wife, her affection as a child, and devotion as a sister. An ornament to society while living, she passed away from the love of all whispering her last words, the consoling language, ‘All is well.’ The love she bore and the kindness she administered will be the green spots of memory till the chords of my heart loosen, my affections dissolve, and by her side I lie down to rest, a weary pilgrim and a stricken husband.”
Buchanan grew up to deliver, in her own words, the epilogue to Sadie’s story, words that still echo the love to be found in close family ties. “Despite his promise, William never returned to be buried with Sadie. On November 25, 1879, back in his hometown of Angola, Indiana, William married Emma McPherson Vandercook, with whom he had at least one child, and lived out his life.” Yet, “He always remained closely tied to the Buchanan family. Sadie’s sisters, with their husbands and children, made the trip to Angola to attend William’s wedding ceremony…and over thirty years later, when J. A. J. Buchanan’s obituary was written in 1910, William B. McConnell was still listed as a son-in-law.”
