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While everyone is talking about ill-fated voyages lost at sea… 🌊⚓️🔱
In the main hall of James Buchanan’s Wheatland hangs a dramatic painting of a shipwreck, gifted to the President by his personal physician, Dr. Jonathan M. Foltz. At first glance, it seems like an appropriate gift from a celebrated Navy surgeon.
But the painting quietly echoes the “oddessey” of another disastrous journey.
While traveling to Washington before his 1857 inauguration, Buchanan, Foltz, and much of their party were struck by a mysterious and deadly illness after staying at the National Hotel. More than 400 people became sick in with what came to be known as the “National Hotel Disease,” likely caused by contaminated drinking water. Perhaps as many as three dozen people, including Buchanan’s own nephew, Elliott Eskridge Lane, perished. Buchanan survived, but never fully recovered.
Foltz remained constantly at Buchanan’s side, even riding directly behind his carriage at the inauguration, prepared to leap into action should the frail Buchanan falter before taking the oath of office.
Buchanan was chronically ill with flare-ups of the mysterious disease and became seriously immunocompromised later in life. He died at Wheatland on June 1st, 1868 at age 77, surrounded by friends and family, the cause attributed to “respiratory insufficiency.” There is little doubt that the National Hotel Disease contributed to his passing all those years later.
Behind every painting, piece of furniture, and personal belonging at Wheatland is a story that reveals another layer of James Buchanan’s complicated life and legacy.
Special thanks to LancasterHistory’s Stephanie Celiberti and Stephanie Townrow for the research and writing that informed this story.
#lancasterhistory #odyssey #lancaster
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