John Buchanan
ID # 4187, (1859-1945)
| Father | William Buchanan (1826-1905) |
| Mother | Catharine Harvie (1834-1904) |
| Baptism | John Buchanan was baptized on 25 February 1859 at Washington, Blenheim Twp.. |
| Marriage | He married Mary Mackay on 25 January 1889 at Indore, India. The date for the marriage of John Buchanan and Mary MacKay is taken from the family bible of William Buchanan and Elizabeth Sowden. The place of marriage is taken from Ruth Buchanan's book, 'My Mother', see page 2. 'They were...married...in Indore by the Rev. Dr. J. Fraser Campbell.' |
| Death | He died on 30 January 1945 at Indore at age 85. |
| Burial | He was buried on 31 January 1945 at Buried at Indore then reburied at Amkhut in the 1980s. |
| Note | An old newspaper clipping (no masthead or date), but obviously from 1945, provides an obituary for John Buchanan. It tells that he attended Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario) and graduated there in arts in 1885 and received a doctorate in divinity in 1887. He attended the University of Vermont where he graduated in medicine. He established a hospital with the help of the generosity of his father, according to the article, among the Bhils, and thereafter spent his life with them. In 1913 the British Government awarded him the Kaisar-i-Hind medal 'for conspicuous services involving courage and sacrifice during the Banswana-Bhil Rebellion.' In 1928 he was elected moderator of the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada and returned to India in 1930. John Buchanan took ill near the end of his life. He went to Indore, at some distance from Amkhut for medical treatment, and died there. He was buried in the local cemetery. His daughters being devout Christians, who did not manage to get to Indore until after his burial, were comfortable with his place of rest. All of which is a wrinkle to consider when we look at family bible records. John Buchanan's brother, William, died in 1937. His wife, Elizabeth, kept up the entries in the family bible, and when news was received of the death of her brother-in-law John, she entered his place of death and presumed burial as Amkhut. That he'd been buried in Indore did not get recorded. In the late 1980s the cemetery was to be razed and the Presbyterian Church arranged the removal of John's remains to Amkhut where he was finally buried beside Mary, his wife. So, Will Buchanan's family bible is correct - but only 40 some odd years after the fact. Which is a caution to those of us who enjoy genealogy. We stumble around in the dark more than we know. Your researcher has in his possession 6 typed pages describing the funeral of John Buchanan and provides something of the names of persons attending. It dates his funeral to Wednesday the 31st, the day after his death. It was held on the lawn of Captain and Mrs. Toombs. This paper will be donated to the Presbyterian Archives along with some papers of Dr. Edith Buchanan, his daughter. Your researcher recalls a conversation with Edith back in the 1980s. The cemetery at Indore was to be razed and arrangements were made to reinterr the remains of Dr. John Buchanan at Amkhut beside his wife, Mary Mackay. This was done and your researcher later saw a video of the ceremony at Amkhut. |
Children of John Buchanan and Mary Mackay |
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| Last Edited | 27 Nov 2025 |