President James Buchanan
Birth | 23 APR 1791 | |||
Educ. | 1809 | ![]() | ||
Occup | 1821-1831 | ![]() | ||
Org. | 1829-1831 | ![]() | ||
Occup | 1831-1832 | USA Ambassador to Russia | ![]() | |
Occup | 1834-1845 | ![]() | ||
Org. | 1836-1841 | ![]() | ||
Occup | 1845-1849 | USA Secretary of State | ![]() | |
Reside | 1848-1868 | |||
Occup | 1853-1856 | USA Ambassador to United Kingdom | ![]() | |
Election | 1856 | USA Presidential Election | ![]() | |
Occup | 1857-1861 | ![]() | ||
Death | 1 JUN 1868 | |||
Grave |
Tall, stately, stiffly formal in the high collar he wore around his lower jaws, James Buchanan was the only President who never married, but behind that fact lay one of the traumatic experiences of his life.
He was born on April 23, 1791 in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania into a well-to-do family. This Gap was in a wild tract of the Alleghenies and was a passageway for rough and tough wagonmen traveling westward. His father farmed there and ran a store catering to these wagonmen.
When James was about six, his father, prospering, moved his family to Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, where the father became a leading citizen and a member along with his family of one of the oldest Presbyterian churches in western Pennsylvania. Through the counsel of Dr. John... Read More