Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Buchanan, Alexander June 30, 1812 - ????
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Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892.
Author: Samuel T. Wiley

ALEXANDER BUCHANAN,
an old and highly respected citizen of Duncansville, is a son of George and
Catherine (Blair) Buchanan, and was born on Fertile Plain, in the Juniata
valley, Blair county, Pennsylvania, June 30, 1812.  George Buchanan was born
in 1782 in Maryland, learned the trade of gunsmith, and in early life removed
to Hollidaysburg, which he afterward left to settle at the foot of the
Allegheny mountains, and then removed to Duncansville, where he died in
1865.  He was a democrat, and a Presbyterian, and followed gunsmithing until
a few years before his death.  He married Catherine Blair, and to their union
were born five children, four sons and one daughter:  Thomas and John, twins,
of whom the former died in 1877, and the latter in the succeeding year;
William, who died in 1840; Alexander; Ann M., widow of Robert Marrow, who
died in 1892.  Mrs. Buchanan, who died in 1816, was a descendant of the old
Blair family, after which Blair county is named, and which was founded by
Captain Thomas and William Blair, who were among the largest landholders of
central Pennsylvania.  Her father Thomas Blair, was a prominent and useful
citizen, a strict and active member of the Presbyterian church, and, with
other members of his family, was instrumental in securing the construction of
the Philadelphia & Pittsburg turnpike over the mountains, and did the
engineering through the gap of the mountain.  Capt. Thomas Blair served in
the revolutionary war, and put up the first mill in the county, at Blair's
Gap, which did grinding for families twenty and twenty-five miles away.  His
children were:  Hon, John, Alexander, Ruth, who married a Mr. More, and
Catherine.  Hon. John Blair married, and his sons where John Hadden, William,
and Maxwell, all of whom died unmarried.
     Alexander Buchanan was reared on a farm, received a practical education,
and followed farming for several years, and then was engaged for eight years
in the iron business with his brothers, Thomas and John, manufacturing
charcoal blooms of iron at Allegheny Forge.  He was also in the mercantile
business for four years, and after quitting the iron business resumed
farming, which he has followed more or less actively until lately in the
suburbs of Duncansville, of which he has been a resident since 1845.  Some
years ago he owned several acres of land at Duncansville, of which he has
sold off many building lots which are now in the borough limits of the town.
     On April 19, 1837, Mr. Buchanan married Mary M. Everett, who is a native
of Herkimer county, New York, and was born in 1808.  To their union were born
two children: Agnes, who died in 1842; and Anna M., who passed away in
1858.  Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan are said to be the oldest married couple in the
county.
     Alexander Buchanan is a democrat in politics, and a member of the
Presbyterian church.  Mr. Buchanan is a man of quiet manners, consistent
morality, and of liberality.

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Donna Thomas

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