Sarah Rosalie Patten Buchanan

(April 23, 1855-February 24, 1941) Quitman native Sarah Rosalie "Rosa" Patten married future state senator John Creighton Buchanan in 1877. They moved to Mineola, and in 1884 Sarah was left a 29-year-old widow with three young children to support. She became a schoolteacher, and in 1892 was appointed by her friend Governor James S. Hogg to a teaching position at Sam Houston State Normal College in Huntsville. She became a full professor, Dean of Women, and head of the English department. Retiring to her family's home at this site in 1916, she supervised Wood County war work during World War I and served on the school board from 1928 to 1932. She died at age 85, and was buried next to her husband in the Mineola City Cemetery.