Johnston's will is dated December 26, 1883, just two days after the incorporation of the Harriet Lane Home. He died on May 5, 1884, four months after incorporation of the Home. It is possible that he had premonitions in December 1883 of ill health and an early death. Being a methodical person he may have de

Lane spent a great deal of time reading to James Buchanan from news- papers and discussing with him current political matters. Mrs. Ellet does not give the source of her information but writes as follows: At Wheatland she [Harriet Lane] entertained her uncle's friends and foreign visitors, with lady

Harriet Lane Johnston: Founder of St. Albans School for Boys by Homer T. Rosenberger Through the vision and philanthropy of a great lady, a famous school for boys came into existence in Washington, D. C., early in this century. During her lifetime Mrs. Harriet Lane Johnston as- sisted a number of

few months the grand lady endured a consid- erable amount of physical suffering. In the late spring or early summer of 1903, probably about June 1, her cousin, Mr. Edward Speer, president of the First National Bank of Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- vania, and also perhaps Mrs. Alexander J. Cassatt, arranged

sort should be erected in his honor. Regardless of who may have been the first to think that Buchanan should thus be honored, it was his niece, Harriet Lane Johnston, who carried the torch, year in and year out, in behalf of a lasting memorial. Early Attempts to Establish A Park and Monument at