"Yes sir, I am."

This story was written by my father Bruce Albert Buchanan:

In the spring of 1960 I was 16 years old, my dad was 50, and I had been given the opportunity to work for Curley Monroe at his fishing lodge along the Huntington River about 30 miles from my home town of Helper, Utah.  

I was to work 5 days a week, getting Tuesday and Wednesday off and would be paid about $30 a week.  

My job was to sell worms, 

clean cabins, 

and help fisherman in the store.  

A few weeks before I was to start, I had an opportunity to go to Montana, and work from Memorial day to Labor day, seven days a week, and make at least $75 a week.  

My job was to clean floors

 and wash dishes 

at a Café in West Yellowstone. 

This is what I wanted to do; the dilemma was having to tell Mr. Monroe I wasn’t going to work for him.  

My dad said, “just tell him the truth.”

"Daddy, I can’t do this."

“Bruce, I will go with you.”  

After dinner, my dad and I went to Mr. Monroe’s home, I rang the doorbell, and when he came to the door, I really thought I was going to die.  

I said, “Mr. Monroe, I have an opportunity to go to Montana and work for the summer.  I want to take the job, and this means I won’t be able to work for you this summer as I had promised”.  

There was silence, which seemed to go on forever.  Mr. Monroe looked at me right in the eye and said, “ Thank You Bruce, that was very nice of you to tell me, now you go and have a good summer.”  

My dad and I left to go home.  I thanked my Dad for being there, and we never talked about that night again.  But I knew, that he knew, it was the right thing to do, and I needed him to be there for me. I worked for Frosty Tornes that summer at the Totem Café and saved over $900.  

During my interview with Frosty, he asked me if I was honest, I said, “Yes sir I am”.

Interview with Mimi and Grampy

Bruce Albert Buchanan (living) and Ruth Rasmussen (1946-2015)

my parents

me-->Bruce Albert Buchanan and Ruth Rasmussen Buchanan

Recently my niece interviewed my parents for a school project.  They were kind enough to share it with me.  I thought their answers warranted a blog post so that all of their grandchildren and future great grandchildren could read them.  These are great questions that all grandchildren should ask their grandparents.  According to an article in the NY Times, children handle stress better when they know their family history.

Question 1
What games did you play at recess when you were in school? Did they play with both boys and girls?

Grampy:

 I went to a private school when I was in Grade School.  Sometimes the boys and girls played together and as we got older we played separately.  In the the early years we played "rover red rover, send Sally Jane over", hopscotch, marbles, and kick the can or steal the flag.    When we were older we played "touch football", baseball, and marbles.  We had recess in the morning (before lunch) and then again in the afternoon.  By the fourth grade we only had recess in the morning and by 7th grade we didn't have recess.

Mimi:

Because I was born after World War 2 in 1946, I am from a generation called the "Baby Boomers". Lots of children were born then until 1964 when the boom ended. So I was a child in the "50"'s.  I went to Central School from the 1st grade until the 3rd grade. During recess, we played hopscotch, rover red rover, and spent a lot of time on play equipment called the "monkey bars".  Children got hurt sometimes on the monkey bars probably because we landed just in the hard dirt if we fell.  Do they have them at your school?  They had swings which we had to race to from class just to get a turn on them.  I loved to swing and could go very high.  As the boys did, girls also played marbles, but I mostly played jacks at recess.  My mom would play jacks with me at home just to practice.  She was very good.

Then for the 4th thru 6th grade, I went to Harding School, which was right next door to Central School and it even shared a big lot.  But the younger kids couldn't go over and play with the older kids.  At Harding, we played dodgeball most of the time, boys and girls together.  It was a lot of fun unless you got hit in the face with the big rubber ball.  We would run bases, and the other side would throw a ball at us to get us out.  Kids played it a lot during the lunch hour. I only ate "hot lunch" at school one time, and on my way to sitting down, spilled my tray all over my new gray poodle skirt. I walked home during all of my school years from 1st through 12th grade to eat lunch.  That was our biggest meal of the day, and my mom was the greatest cook.  My Dad would come home at the same time to eat too.  I loved that time most of all!

Question 2:What chores or jobs did you do when you were young?

Grampy:

My chores were to empty the garbage, fill the coal hopper for the furnace, take out the clinkers from the furnace, make my bed, and do my homework before I could play outside.  In the summer, I mowed the lawn.  
from the time I was 10 to 15 years old I sold worms in the summer.  My worms were the most expensive in town.  I sold them for .25 cents a dozen.  I mowed lawns and when I could drive, I would haul coal from a nearby mine in a pickup to peoples homes.  I would put the coal in their coal bin.  I payed $3.00 for a ton of coal and sold it delivered for $ 6.00.  I mowed lawns and cleaned yards for $0.50 an hour.  I never got an allowance but always seemed to have money.  I had a savings account at the bank and when I was 12 my account had $100.00.  Today that would be like having several thousand dollars.  One summer when I was 16 years old I worked washing dishes and cleaning floors for a restaurant called the Totem Cafe. I worked 7 days a week all summer.  My bosses name was Frosty and his wife was Ramona.  I saved $900.00 that summer and $1000.00 the next summer.  That year I went to college and my books and tuition for the YEAR was around $250.00.

Mimi:

As for chores, I was the youngest girl like you, and my brother wasn't born until I was 5.  So as the baby of the family, I wasn't expected to do very much.  We played outside all of the time, so I wasn't in the way for my Mom to get her work done.  I'm sure my 2 older sisters did a lot more washing of the dishes than I ever did. I was pretty spoiled for the most part.  I remember begging my Mom to let me iron when I was 10, so she let me iron the pillowcases to give me something to do.  I shared a room and the same bed with my sister Helen, who was 5 years older than me.  That wasn't too fun for her, but I loved it.  I was a teenager before I had my own room.  I remember dusting the living room furniture on Saturdays and eventually vacuuming the carpet when I was older.  Once my sisters left home, I did more around the house.

Question 3:Did you take any trips when you were young or go on vacations.  How did you get there? How often did you go?

Grampy:

We didn't take to many vacations.  Once we went to Yellowstone when I was about 10.  My Grandmother ( Ma Buchanan) went with us.  She was old, not much fun and my sister was a pill.  My dad and I went camping and fishing all the time.  We were gone most every weekend in the summer fishing somewhere.  We went on horses once into the Unitah mountains.  In the fall we went hunting and camped out when we were gone.  I started fly fishing when I was about 10.  I used a bamboo rod and still have that rod today.  In the winter we went duck hunting.  I shot my first deer when I was 11 and my first duck when I was 10.  When we traveled we went in a car.  When we went hunting and fishing we had a jeep wagon and always went in it.  One vacation that I remember was with my Grandparents (Grampy and Nona).  They took me to San Francisco when I was about 8.  We say a play called "South Pacific" stayed in a fancy hotel, called the Mark.  We went in a 1950 Buick and saw California.  We drove through a tree in the Redwoods.  My Grampy and Nona really loved me and took really good care of me.  My Nona died on my birthday when I was 10.  I really missed her.  Later my Grampy moved to Pueblo CO. and every summer and Christmas I stayed with him and his new wife Zoetta for two weeks.  He taught me how to play Bridge, Poker, Pool, Bowl and eat greasy hamburgers.  He was a lot of fun.  I stopped going when I turned 16.  He died when I was going to school in Bozeman Mt.  Your mom was about 9mos. old when he died.  

Mimi:

We went on fun trips when we were young.  I loved traveling with my family.  The first trip I went on when I was a baby, so I don't remember, was to Yellowstone Park in my Dad's first car, a Buick.  We went there many times over the years, and to this day I still love going to Yellowstone Park and West Yellowstone.  It's one of Grandpy's favorites too.  We always travelled by car, and not very roomy cars like we have today.  We went to Oregon so my Dad could compete in trap shooting.  He always wanted us kids to continually look out of the window at all the scenery so we wouldn't miss anything.  He didn't travel fast, and made us look at EVERYTHING.  I was usually sitting on the floor of the car because my sisters took up so much room on the backseat.  Fun times. We also went on a fun trip to Hollywood, California to see my aunt  with just my mom, sisters and little brother.  My dad was deer hunting and didn't even know we went.  My 17 year old sister drove most of the trip.  That was before Disneyland was there.  What I remember the most about that trip was picking grapefruit from my aunt's tree for breakfast.  My first trip to Disneyland was when I was twelve at Christmastime.  I had new red silky pajamas and a crazy looking stuffed monkey Santa brought me, and I carried him with me everywhere on that trip.  I still have him.

My favorite trip was to Lake of the Woods in Ontario Canada.  We drove  through many states to get there.  We had a large cabin and stayed two weeks.  My dad went fishing on a large lake every day with a guide my dad hired named Johnny.  Dad would take my mom or one of us kids each day too.  At lunch time we stopped on a little island, and Johnny would cook any fish we caught for us to eat.  It was the best I remember eating.  He taught my dad how to filet a fish, and mom how to cook them. As kids, we could go to the little convenience store by the cabins and get anything we wanted, and it was just charged, so we never needed any money.  Of course my dad had to pay the bill at the end of the stay.  I went everyday for a Big Chief red soda.  I loved it!

We also went rock hunting on the weekends during the spring and summer in different parts of Southern Utah.  My dad was a "rock hound" and made beautiful jewelry out of rocks that he cut and polished.  We went with other families and loved being in the desert.

Question 4:What was an important even in your life?

Grampy:

 An important event in my life.  There have been so many.  When your aunt Heather and your Mom were born was pretty special.  The day I married Mimi.  Going to the temple and being sealed to Mimi and your aunt Heather, your Mom and uncle Ryan.  When I was baptized by your greatuncle Art.  Finishing a Ph.D in Bozeman.   When my parents died has come to mean a lot to me.  Almost dying when I ate a mushroom was an event that really changed my life.  The first time I walked through a temple.  Setting a National Record when I was 17.  Being called into a Stake Presidency.  Turning 60 years old. My father died when he was 58.  Backpacking with 4 sons for hundreds of miles and climbing Engineer peak with Adam 10 years ago.  Getting hearing aids.  Going to Alaska with 3 sons.  Selling a business that I had for over 40 years.  Winning the Don Roush award as the Outstanding Teacher at NMSU.  Maybe the most important event in my life has not happened yet, but if I had to pick ONE that has, it would be to do with the day I decided to be baptized.  The church means everything to me and having a testimony of the restored Gospel defines me more than anything.  

Mimi:

Those were probably the big events of my younger years.  The other activity that took up my summers was 4H. I joined when I was ten until I was 18.  It was a program where my mom was a leader and my friends and I learned to cook and sew.  Then we would enter our products in the county and state fairs to be judged.  Those were such fun times.  When my friend Jane and I were 16, we won a state food preparation contest, and a trip to Denver Colorado for a big convention of youth.  We stayed downtown Denver in a large hotel and had tours and fancy dinners with ice sculptures.  That was the first time I ever ate cheesecake, and I thought it was so good. I also sang the 4H song at the final banquet of the week in the new Hilton Hotel. They had a light on me in a darkened room with a flag waving behind me.  I was petrified, but I did it.

The Case of the Missing Eyeball

Bruce Buchanan (1943-living) 

Father 

me-->Bruce Albert Buchanan

When my dad was about five years old, he went down to Ma Buchanan's house.  He and a neighbor kid, Bobby, decided to play in a sandbox in Bobby's backyard.

This is what parents would like to think is happening when their kids play together in a sandbox.

This is usually what happens when kids play together in a sandbox.

Dad and Bobby were no exception.  They began to fight.  Suddenly, FOR NO REASON, (yeah, right Dad) Bobby picked up a chair and threw it at Dad's head.  Dad wasn't happy.

But not just because his feelings were hurt.  He was really hurt.  His eye specifically.  So he covered his face.

It didn't take long to realize why his eye was hurting.  His was bleeding!  What does any boy do when he's hurt and bleeding?  He ran into the house to find his grandmother, of course.

"Ma, Bobby hit me in the face with a chair!"

Ma Buchanan did what any grandmother would do if she saw her grandson running through the house bleeding.

No, she didn't do that.  She did this.

As Dad was bleeding over the sink, Ma Buchanan called Nona.  "Your son has been hurt, there is something wrong with his eye."  Nona jumped in her car and headed to her mother-in-law's.
Meanwhile Ma was trying to wash Dad's face, but Dad wouldn't put his hands down.  He kept covering his eye.  Finally, Nona arrived 10 minutes later, she was able to convince him take his hand off his eye.  What happened next was absolutely horrifying.

Dad's eyeball fell out of its socket and went down the drain!

Or so she thought.

Turns out the blood had begun to clot in his hand. When he let go, all of the clotted blood looked like a bloody eyeball going down the drain.

Needless to say, Dad was never allowed to play with Bobby again.

The Ellusive John Buchanan

John Buchanan (1869-1941)

My great grandfather

me-->Bruce Albert Buchanan-->Robert Amos Buchanan-->John Buchanan

When I was 12 years old, I found out that we didn't know who my great grandfather's parents were.  I decided to find out.  Little did I know what I was in for.

John Buchanan circa 1940

I'll save how I found him for another post. I want to write about who he was and who he became.


Right before John Buchanan died in 1941, he gave a few clues as to who he really was.  These are the only four clues I've had all these years.

1. I was born in Highland, Illinois
2. My mother was from France.
3. My mother's name was Susan "Boo-shan" (never spelled it).
4. My father's name was Nathan.

Well that should be plenty right?  I mean all I should have to do is look in 1870 census records for a little baby named John Buchanan in a household with Nathan and Susan Buchanan, right?  Wrong.

John Buchanan wasn't born John Buchanan.  He was born Joshua Demoulin.  Here's the story.

Nathan, John's father, came to America from Northern France, with his father Martin Joseph.  They bought a farm in Clinton County, Illinois.

He met a girl named Susanne Besin also from France.

They were married soon after, and had their first child.  His name was Nathan Jr. and he was born still.

They had three more children all girls, Evodie, Lydia, and Susanne (Susie).  On October 18, 1869, they had another son.  This time he lived.  They named him Joshua and nicknamed him John.

In November of 1871, Susanne had another little girl.  This time the baby and the mother both died.  Nathan is now left with 4 children, the youngest not even two.

His father, Martin, died 5 years later.

Tombstone of Martin Demoulin in Jamestown Cemetery, Illinois.

Nathan remarried another girl, Fanny Combe from Switzerland.  They had 6 kids.

Evodie married Samuel Noel, then William Thomas.  She died at the age of 51.

Lydia never married and died at the age of 40.

Susie never married and died at the age of 86.

Joshua disappeared in 1905 without a trace.  The family just assumed he died and never had any children.



They were wrong.  He changed his name to John Buchanan, married June Miller, and became my great grandfather.

 

After 24 years of looking, I finally found him.  Nice to finally meet you Joshua Demoulin.



The 24-year Genealogy Class

Me (1969-living)

Heather Ruth Buchanan Pack

In the fall of 1988, I registered for a Rel C 261 class.  It's official name was "Family History-Genealogy."

Our entire grade was based on a single project.  Completing our pedigree chart.  All semester long we were supposed to collect photos, certificates, and other documents of our great grandparents and great great grandparents.

I had a problem.  I didn't know who all of mine were.    My Dad's line ended with his grandpa, John Buchanan.  So I filled in what I could and turned it in.  My grade?  D+.

 The very next semester I took HIST 262R, also known as Family History Research Lab.  This was a much better class.  My grade was either Pass or Fail.  You passed based on how many hours you logged researching, not what you found.  I logged lots of hours, I found nothing.  I passed.

Now, I could have been discouraged and frustrated.  I could have said, "I guess when it come to researching my ancestors, I'm a D+ student.  I'll let someone else do that."  But I didn't.  I didn't give up. 

Those two classes sparked a desire in me to continue looking for John Buchanan and his parents.  I never stopped looking.  Well, actually I did stop looking.  I stopped on March 22, 2013.  I stopped, because that  day I found him. I didn't just find him, I found his parents, siblings, half-siblings, in-laws, nieces, nephews, cousins, grandparents, great grandparents, and so on, all the way back to the 1500s.

Do you think it's too late to ask for a grade change?  After 24 years I think I deserve an A.

One Step Closer

Susan Bezin? Berzin? Bazin? Bousien? (1840-?)

My second great grandmother

me --> Bruce Albert Buchanan --> Robert Amos Buchanan --> John Buchanan --> Susan

For those who don't know, I've been searching for my great great grandmother for over two decades.

Yesterday I believe I came one step closer.  I mentioned previously that I found a Susan Bogin living with a family, the Eismons.

Initially this seemed like a dead end because I couldn't find the Eismons in any future census records, nor on any passenger lists.  Turns out the census taker and the those who indexed the names got the family's names wrong.

The head of household wasn't Fenlon Eismon.  His name is actually... are you read for this?

Irenee Foulon

Pretty different, huh?  Well, there's more.  His wife's name is Lydia Foulon.  They had a son named Irenaeus Dielschristo Foulon.  I was able to find his death certificate.  His mother's maiden name is listed as, drum roll please.

Lydia Bousien

Bousien could sound like "Boo-zhan" don't ya' think? 

This means that Susan Bogin was living with someone whose maiden name sounded quite a bit like her last name.  So I'm thinking they are related, what about you?

But wait, there's more.  While writing this post, I found another death certificate.

Do you see that?  It gives her father's name as Wer Berzin.  Now if someone who hears the name "Lydia" and spells it like "Littia."  What name was this person trying to spell by writing Wer Berzin?

The quest continues!

Navajo Tacos and Bubble Gum Ice Cream

When I was a little girl living in Las Cruces, New Mexico, our family drove to Price, Utah every summer to visit the grandparents.  Fortunately, my dad's mom lived just 15 minutes away from my mom's parents.

I don't know exactly which year, but the day after we arrived, Nona drove down to Price to pick up my sister and I and take us out to lunch.

"Where do you want to go to lunch?"  Nona asked.

Kristi and I looked at each other and shrugged.  We had no idea what Price had to offer in the way of restaurants.

"We could go to the Carriage House," she suggested.

Again Kristi and I looked at each other and shrugged.  We had no idea what a carriage house was.  Turns out it was a hotel that had a restaurant attached.  A pretty cool looking hotel actually.

This restaurant had on its menu something that Kristi and I had never eaten before.  Navajo tacos.

"Wait, you are living in New Mexico and you had never eaten Navajo tacos?"  

"We are from Southern New Mexico, the Navajos live in Northern New Mexico."

"Oh, got it.  Continue with the story."

For those who don't know what a Navajo taco is, it's fried bread (like a scone) with taco toppings piled on top.  We were very familiar with tacos and ordered it.  I loved it!

After lunch, Nona went to the cash register to pay for our meal.  There at the register was an ice cream bar, where you could get hand-scooped ice cream.  Nona offered to buy us each an ice cream cone.  As I looked through the frosty glass to see what flavors they had, I saw something I had never seen before.  

BLUE ICE CREAM!

"What flavor is that?"

"That's bubble gum ice cream."

First Navajo tacos and now bubble gum-flavored ice cream?  Price, Utah has many wonderful new and exciting foods to behold!

Of course I had to try this crazy new ice cream.  And I loved it!

How I think I looked eating the ice cream.

How I probably actually looked eating the ice cream.

The following year, Nona again came the day after we arrived and asked us where we wanted to go to lunch.  We now know of one restaurant in town, The Carriage House.  So we said, "We'd like to go to the Carriage House."

When it was time to order our lunch, we knew of one item on the menu.  Navajo tacos.  So we got Navajo tacos.

When Nona offered us ice cream, I got the one flavor that you could only get in Price, Utah.  Bubble Gum.

Pretty soon, going to the Carriage House for Navajo tacos and ice cream became a tradition that would last for many years.

Even now I still like to order bubble gum ice cream. It always reminds me of Nona.

This story features:

Gertrude Maxine Wahl Buchanan (1916-1998)

My grandmother (Nona)

me --> Bruce Albert Buchanan --> Gertrude Maxine Wahl Buchanan

Nona's Magical Supply of Thread

Gertrude Maxine Wahl Buchanan (1916-1998)

My grandmother

me --> Bruce Albert Buchanan --> Gertrude Maxine Wahl Buchanan

When I was 15 I spent the summer with my Nona.  Nona is Italian for grandmother.  Sometimes we would walk down the street and visit her cousin's wife, Edith Litizzette.

Edith had just bought a brand new sewing machine.  It could embroider and do all sorts of fancy stitches.  I remember looking at her machine and thinking I was seeing something out of the Jetsons.

It was a brand that I couldn't even pronounce.

The best way I can describe how to pronounce it is,  think of how you say "cupful."  Remove the "cu" and add an "aff" sound.  Well anyway, it sounded fancy and from the future.

A couple of years later when I was visiting Nona, she told me that she had bought herself a Pfaff sewing machine.  She only had it a few years when she fell and broke her shoulder.  She could no longer sew with it, so she gave it to me.

Pfaff Tiptronic 1171

She also gave me all of her notions as well.  For you non-sewers types, notions are all the supplies that you need to be able to sew: needles, thread, thimbles, pins, chalk, measuring tape, etc.  Included in her supplies were many spools of thread.

You sewer types are probably thinking, "That is no way to organize your grandmother's thread."  But I have to keep the thread in its drawer like this. If I organize it, it will lose its magical powers.

I'm not talking about the silly magic we see at shows.

I'm talking about REAL magic.  You know like Harry Potter magic.

Doesn't seeing Harry this young make you feel old?

You probably are wondering how it is that my supply of thread has magical powers?  Well, let me tell you.  I have owned this supply of thread for almost 20 years.  I HAVE NEVER HAD TO BUY THREAD SINCE!  I'm not kidding.  

Nona's Magical Supply of Thread always has the exact color I need for every project.  Many times I will buy fabric and think, "I should get matching thread."  Then I say to myself, "Let me give Nona's Magical Supply of Thread a chance first."  And sure enough, in that drawer will be the exact color I need.

I know each spool isn't magical, because over time I have emptied spools and had to throw them away. BUT MY SUPPLY NEVER GOES DOWN.  My drawer is just as full as when I got it 20 years ago.  

In fact just today I was hemming some pants for my daughter.  She had bought some scrubs for her trip to Guatemala.  She wanted colorful scrubs, so she bought lime green and red ones.  Sure enough, in Nona's Magical Supply of Thread were the exact colors I needed.

Maybe you are still skeptical and don't believe that Nona's thread is magical.  Maybe you are telling yourself, "Heather probably doesn't sew that much.  She probably only hems pants every couple years or so."  To you I say, "Nay. Nay."  I have sewn over 20 quilts, several years worth of Halloween costumes for five children, countless dresses for my daughters, and many many purses.  Look more closely at Nona's Magical Supply of Thread.

See?  Magical!

Tea and Toast

June Miller Eckstein Buchanan (1877-1963)

My Great Grandmother

me --> Bruce Albert Buchanan --> Robert Amos Buchanan --> June Miller Eckstein Buchanan

My Nona (my dad's mother) told me this story about her mother-in-law who everyone called "Ma Buchanan."

Ma Buchanan loved to have tea and toast as a snack.  She would make herself some tea

and then toast some bread with cheese on top in the oven.

But here's the thing.  If she finished her toast before she finished her tea, she'd make more toast.

Then she'd finish her tea before finishing her second toast so she'd make another cup of tea.

Which of course meant her toast was almost gone.  So of course she'd have to make herself more toast. 

And so on and so on, until finally she could finish her tea and toast at the same time.

Three generations later, I'm the exact same way.  Except I do it with these.

Desperately Seeking Susan

Susan ? (?-?)

My second great grandmother

me --> Bruce Albert Buchanan --> Robert Amos Buchanan --> John Buchanan --> Susan

Desperately Seeking Susan

When I was about 12 years old, I asked my mother to help me fill out my pedigree chart for the first time. Even then I had a love for learning about my ancestors.  I still remember how I felt when my mother told me that we didn't know how to spell my great grandfather's mother's name.

Only that it sounded like "Boo-jean."

and that she was from France.

I couldn't believe that my Buchanan line ended so abruptly.  How can my dad not know the name of his great grandmother?

Thus began what has turned out (so far) to be a life-long quest to find Susan.  I have taken genealogy classes, visited countless family history centers, and ordered or tried to order court documents.  And yet all these years later (30 to be exact) Susan's information remains the same on my chart.

Here's what I know:
John had parents.  (This seems obvious but frankly there have been times when I've wondered if he was dropped off by aliens at the turn of the 20th Century)
John says he was born in Highland, Madison County, Illinois (I have never found any official documentation proving this.)
John says his parents names were Nathaniel and Susan.  His mother was from France; his father, Kentucky.
John says his birthday is October 18, 1869.
John worked on the railroad as a locomotive engineer.
Family tradition says he left home at the age of 14 and spent time in Mexico.

Here's what I've discovered:

John was married before he married my great grandmother, June Miller Eckstein Buchanan.
Her name was Catherine Shepler.
They married on December 31, 1898.
They were living together in Pueblo, Colorado in 1900.
She sued him for divorce on January 27, 1905 for desertion and non-support in Pueblo, Colorado.
John could speak French, Spanish and English.
My grandfather told my father that we are French, not Scottish.  This makes me wonder if Buchanan is an American version of "Boo-jean" and John took his mother's not his father's name.

The paper trail ends there.  But I have found something that looks promising.

This is the only Susan from France that I have ever found living in Madison Illinois around the same time as John's birth.  She's listed as living as a servant for a family also from France the Eismons.  The reason why this census record looks promising is because her last name is Bogin.  Sometimes census takers would write down the person's name based on what they heard and was not necessarily how it was spelled.

I have spent many long frustrating nights trying to find even the smallest of information about John's mother.  But I wouldn't trade this journey for anything.  This quest has developed in me a deep love for all of my ancestors, not just the Buchanan line.  In looking for Susan, I have found literally hundreds along the way.

So I no longer consider myself desperately seeking Susan.  Just seeking Susan.  She'll appear when it's time.
Update:  I found her on March 22, 2103.  Read about it here. 

Disclaimer:  I do not think I'm related to Madonna.