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.

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.

Tackling a Tigress

Lavenia Andrus Miller McComb Sondberg Tryon (1854-1939)

My Second Great Grandmother

me --> Bruce Albert Buchanan --> Robert Amos Buchanan --> June Miller Eckstein Buchanan --> Lavenia Andrus Miller McComb Sondberg Tryon

Of all of my ancestors, I have a real soft spot for Lavenia.  I think for two main reasons, she had a very difficult life and she was as strong as an ox.  If I was allowed to only have lunch with one of my ancestors, I'd definitely pick her.

I came across this newspaper article about her today and loved it so much I decided it needed it's own post.

Seems in 1902 Lavenia had a little trouble with a property she purchased.  A man named Fitch felt that he had legal right to that property too.  That's J. Tom Fitch, as in Judge Fitch.

J. Tom Fitch

Did that intimidate Lavenia?  Of course not!  She ran him off her property with a double barreled shotgun.

She said she always shoots to kill.  Lucky for him, he was able to run around a corner and she missed.

So what does Judge Fitch do?  Take it to court of course.  There he got a document that legally declared the property his.

But Lavenia said she'd never vacate the property except as a corpse.  In today's words...

So the Sheriff Hyrum Wilcox, goes over to Lavenia's with five deputies.

The other two deputies were too scared to pose for the picture.

According to the article, "They tackled a tigress."

Two had to hold onto her, while the others took her household items.  One had to extract a pistol from her, um..., "bosom."

They even removed the windows and doors from the house.

Not actual house

Once Fitch was notified that he had possession of the home again he sent two men to watch it.  When Lavenia showed up at 3 o'clock in the morning, they "vamoosed."

Vamoose means to leave like your life depends on it.

By the time the Sheriff got there, she had replaced all the windows and doors.

And now for the rest of the story:

Right now you might be thinking that Lavenia was acting unreasonable, but let me tell you the rest of the story.

J. Tom Fitch was known as the "Father of Helper."  He is credited as having built the very first home in Helper.  He was a real estate man and owned several properties.  This was Lavenia's only home and she earned an income by doing laundry.  Fitch was offered $1000 to let Lavenia stay in the home.  The home was worth $300.  Fitch refused the money.

Fitch would go on to become the mayor of Helper and eventually a State Representative.  Lavenia was eventually evicted permanently from the home and had to find a new place to live.

Almost There

Charles Stewart Miller (1804-1849)

My third great-grandfather

Me --> Bruce Albert Buchanan --> Robert Amos Buchanan --> June Miller Eckstein Buchanan --> James Miller --> Charles Stewart Miller

The Millers were coal miners in Scotland. Life as a coal miner in Scotland wasn't easy. Charles' children are working in horrible conditions and not getting an education.  A Child Labor Law protecting young coal miners had just barely been passed.  Then his sixteen-year-old son comes home one day and tells him he has joined a new religion.  He wants Charles to join it to.  He does. Two years later he takes his wife and his 11 children and they set sail for America.

I think that the idea of emigrating to Utah would have seemed like both a spiritual and temporal salvation.  He could leave the horrid working conditions of coal mining and seek a better life for his children.  They would be able to go to school and not face the dangers of accidents and explosions.

How excited he must have been to land in New Orleans and set off for St. Louis, their last stop before they reach Utah. Sitting on the riverboat he probably thought, "I'm almost there."  After landing in St. Louis, his son gets cholera and dies on June 22.  Then his wife and then another son.  Charles also gets cholera and dies on the Fourth of July.  It seems almost cruel that his life should end on the same day that the country celebrates its beginning.

Did he regret coming, knowing he was now leaving his nine remaining children as orphans in a foreign land?  Maybe he knew that my second great grandfather James would assume the role as head of the family and raise enough money so that they could leave for Utah the next year.  Maybe he knew that they would all marry and give him over 90 grandchildren.  Maybe he even received an inkling that one of those grandchildren would have a grandson who would one day become the president of the Church he had just joined.

Maybe he felt that "almost there" was close enough.

Never Underestimate the Power of a Hat

This is a story my grandmother, Gertrude Maxine Wahl Buchanan (Nona), told me.  I have no idea if it is true, but I think it makes for great family folklore.

Lavenia had four husbands.  When she was married to one of them, (I don't know which one but I don't think it was James Miller or James McComb) she was living in Helper and decided she wanted a divorce.  In those days you had to file a claim in Price Utah, about 6 miles away.  The cost was $10.

Lavenia saved up her money and hitched up the wagon and set out for the courthouse in Price to get her divorce.  On the way she passed by a store and saw a hat in the window.

 Lavenia loved hats.  She stopped to get a closer look and fell in love with the hat on display.  The cost of the hat was $10.  She decided she could stand to stay married a little longer, but couldn't go another minute without that hat.  So she bought the hat instead of the divorce.

This is how I imagine she looked going back home.

This is what she actually looked like.

Maybe this is the hat she bought that day.

Or maybe it was this one. 

This story is about

Lavenia Andrus Miller McComb Sondberg Tryon (1854-1939)

My second great grandmother

me --> Bruce Albert Buchanan --> Robert Amos Buchanan --> June Miller Eckstein Buchanan --> Lavenia Andrus Miller McComb Sondberg Tryon

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TACKLING A TIGRESS