Joseph Kerr Buchanan Bio
Monongalia Co WV


The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II
pg 93

Joseph Kerr Buchanan, manager of the West Virginia Utilities Company, and one 
of the younger prominent business men of Morgantown, was born April 22, 1883, 
at Clinton, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, the son of the Rev. Aaron Moore 
Buchanan, D.D., now of Uniontown, Pennsylvania.

The Buchanan genealogy appears on record as follows:

(I)  James Buchanan, born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on May 23, 1761, 
served as a private in Captain Morrison's Company of Potter's Battalion of 
Pennsylvania Infantry in the Revolutionary war; he removed to Washington 
County, Pennsylvania, where he died November 25, 1823; he married Margaret 
Ross.

(II)  John, son of James and Margaret (Ross) Buchanan, was born February 28, 
1798; married on February 4, 1823, Margaret Chambers, and removed to Hancock 
County, Virginia-now West Virginia, where he died in 1834.

(III)  Joseph Kerr, son of John and Margaret (Chambers) Buchanan, was born in 
Hancock County, West Virginia, January 23, 1830.  His parents dying before he 
had reached his fifth year, he was reared in the family of Aaron and Polly 
(Stevens) Moore, of Beaver County, Pennsylvania.  He married Martha Bigger, 
who was born April 9, 1830; he died August 30, 1894, his widow on January 16, 
1909.

(IV)  Aaron Moore Buchanan, D.D., son of Joseph K. and Martha (Bigger) 
Buchanan, was born in Hanover Township, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, July 7, 
1856.  He attended Frankfort Springs academy, Beaver County, Pennsylvania; 
was graduated from Washington and Jefferson College A.B., Class of '79; 
graduated from Western Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 
1882; was licensed to preach April 21, 1881, by the Presbytery of Washington, 
and was ordained by the Presbytery of Pittsburgh, October 4, 1882; from 
October 1882, to May, 1886, he was pastor of Hebron Presbyterian Church, 
Clinton, Pennsylvania, and became pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Morgant
own, West Virginia, in May, 1886,continuing until 1915; he is now 
superintendent of missions of Redstone Presbytery and resides at Uniontown, 
Pennsylvania.  Washington and Jefferson College gave him the D.D. degree in 
June, 1899; he served as chaplain of the First Regiment of Infantry, West 
Virginia National Guard, from July 24, 1894, for twenty years.  On June 28, 
1882, he was united in marriage with Sarah Wiley, of Washington, 
Pennsylvania, the daughter of John and Margaret (McLain) Wiley, and 
granddaughter of William Taylor and Martha (Harbison) Wiley.  Her maternal 
great-grandparents, John and Massy (White) Harbison, figure in the early 
history of Western Pennsylvania, both John Harbison and Edward White having 
served in the American Revolution.  Massy (White) Harbison was twice captured 
by Indians, and all of her children except a baby in arms were killed by 
savages.

Joseph K. Buchanan was reared in Morgantown, where he was prepared for 
college and entered West Virginia University.  He left the university before 
completing his junior year in 1904 to enter the employ as meter reader and 
general utility man of the then Union Utilities Company at Morgantown and has 
continued with that corporation through its different reorganizations, having 
been made manager in 1910 and continues in that position with what is now the 
West Virginia Utilities Company.  He is president of the Morgantown Hardware 
Company, president of the Reger Oil Company and a director in the Morgantown 
Savings and Loan Society.  He is first vice president of the Morgantown 
Chamber of Commerce and a member of Morgantown Rotary Club and of the Kappa 
Psi Phi fraternity, of which fraternity his father is also a member.

Mr. Buchanan married Frances Louisa, daughter of Hugh Craig and Pauline 
(Davis) Allison, of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and they have one daughter, Mary 
Buchanan, born December 26, 1919.