1st wife of John Henry Wallace

Daughter of Mary Sims Ross and William Buchanan

Given name Mary Elizabeth Wickam Buchanan, she was named for a family friend in South Carolina. Name first appears on the 1850 census, when she was 4 years old.

HISTORY OF THE NAME "Wickie" IN THE BUCHANAN FAMILY

Some have suggested that the name “Wickie” was a carryover from an American Indian ancestor in the Buchanan line. This is not the case. Here is how the name came about;

First, we must go back to South Carolina in the 1700’s, to a young woman named Mary Elizabeth Wickham. She was the daughter of Nathaniel Wickham. She married John Marion in South Carolina around 1770. In 1773, they had a son and named him after Mary’s father, calling him Nathaniel Wickham Marion. About 1811, this Nathaniel Marion married Hannah Ross, widow of a Mr. Coleman, They had 3 children before she died in 1818. The oldest was a girl born in 1812 that they named after Nathaniel Marion’s mother, calling her Mary Elizabeth Wickham Marion.

Now, this Hannah Ross-Marion had a brother name Stephen Ross. He had two children that ended up settling in Marion County MS. One was Nathaniel Marion Ross (named after his uncle Nathaniel Marion). The other was Mary Ross who married William Buchanan in South Carolina in 1841. In 1844 they had a daughter who they named Mary Elizabeth Wickham Buchanan (after Mary Ross-Buchanan’s first cousin, Mary Elizabeth Wickham who was also their neighbor). In William Buchanan's estate papers, Mary lists her children and Mary is named as "Mary E. W. Buchanan". In the 1860 census, you can see that she was going by the name “Wickam”. She went on to marry John Henry Wallace about 1865, and was known to most as Wickie Wallace. Since then, the name has been used as Wickie, but originally was Wickham. It’s a great story, and a unique name, which has helped to unravel a bit of family history.

P.S. The idea of Wickie's having a Choctaw heritage seems highly unlikely. We have proof of her ancestry back at least three generations on both her father and mothers side. Also, if she did have Native American ancestry, it would almost certainly not be Choctaw. None of her ancestors lived in Choctaw lands. - Randall Buchanan, from the Descendants of William Buchanan of Ireland

* Wickham's given name is documented in her's father's estate. She is listed by her mother as "Mary E. W. Buchanan".