Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897
[p. 365] is a wealthy farmer of Pulaski, Pa., and owner of the Shenango Valley Stock Farm. He was born in Lawrence Count , Nov. 18, 1854. He was a son of John P. and Elizabeth (Irvine) Buchanan, the former of Pulaski, and the latter a native of Mercer Co.,Pa.
Robert Buchanan, the grandfather of the present scion of the Buchanan family, was a native of Wilmington, and redeemed a farm from the wilderness of its natural state, and brought it into such excellent condition that it yielded bountifully under his management and labors. The farm not only provided sustenance for the family, and all the necessaries and not a few of the luxuries of life, but also produced with so lavish a hand, that Mr. Buchanan was enabled to lay by a comfortable competency for his old age. The wife of Robert Buchanan was Anna Piper, a daughter of John Piper of Mercer County, and she bore two children, of whom Mary A. died at thirty years of age, and John P., born Dec. 18 1822, who lived to be the father of Milton I. Politically, Mr. Buchanan was a follower of Jefferson and an admirer of Jeffersonian principles. During the War of 1812 he enlisted at Erie, Pa. as a private. He and his family were Presbyterians.
John P. Buchanan, the only son of Robert, went to school in Pulaski township, and in this day of cheap glass, and its wide and extended use, it is quite difficult to imagine the lack of it, but it is a fact that the school which he attended had greased paper for the glazing in the windows. After he left school, he took up the pursuit of agriculture, and prospered as had his father before him. Beside his farm, Mr. Buchanan operated a saw-mill. He was a Democrat, and had his worth recognized by elections to several different offices in the township, but he did not aspire to higher political honors. Mr. Buchanan won the hand of Elizabeth Irvine in marriage; she was born Sept. 13, 1823, a daughter of William Irvine, and their family numbered six, of whom the eldest was Milton I., whose name appears as the title of this personal history. Mary T., the next in order of birth, married Henry Hartman of Neshannock Falls, and has a family of five children—Frank, Vida, Harry, Clarence, and Eva. Emma R. became the wife of William Lostetter of Erie, Pa., and the mother of Edna, Clifford, and Helen. The other three children of the parental family died in infancy. The family were consistent members of the Presbyterian Church, and regular attendants at the services. Mr. Buchanan was gathered to his fathers in 1888, at the age of sixty six. Mrs. Buchanan preceded her husband across the River of Death to rejoin the countless throng of those gone on before, dying Aug. 5, 1886.
Milton I. Buchanan, whose ancestral history has just been recorded, was under the tutelage of village school-masters until he was a well-grown youth, and then he went to work in earnest on the homestead, as he was the only son that grew up, and he now has 259 acres of fine, arable land. He not only keeps up the ordinary industries of the farm, but makes a specialty of breeding standard stock, and it is all registered, being of such first-class varieties as Short-horn cattle, Shropshire sheep, and Poland-China hogs. Mr. Buchanan is just the man who has at his tongue's end an inexhaustible fund of information, and he is able to answer any query from general rules down to minute details in regard to the care of stock. He owns the celebrated Scarlet Neck Bull, register number 117645, the dam of which was imported from Scotland.
On December 29, 1880, occurred Mr. Buchanan's union with Hannah F. Cox, daughter of Charles Cox of Wilmington township, Lawrence County, and they have a family of three children, John P., Nellie L., and Robert B. In religious belief they incline to the Presbyterian doctrines, and are members of that church. Mr. Buchanan has held his quota of the township offices and is now school director. He is just attaining middle life, and already he is able to look about on broad acres, well-filled barns, and see on every hand evidences of his prosperity. He can give his children many advantages and assure them a place in the community, where his antecedents are well-known, and where the Buchanan name is highly esteemed. Mr. Buchanan's renown as a skilled agriculturist and stock-breeder is not confined to his immediate neighborhood, but extends throughout Lawrence County.
Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
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Updated: 30 May 2001