James Buchanan was the second of eleven children was born near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania to James and Elizabeth Spear Buchanan on April 23, 1791. His father had emigrated from County Donegal, Ireland in 1783. Buchanan's childhood was spent at the family's frontier trading post in nearby Stony Batter, Pennsylvania.
Buchanan attended Dickinson College in nearby Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1809. He served briefly in the War of 1812. After studying the law, he was admitted to the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania bar in 1813.
In 1819 the future president was engaged to marry Ann Coleman. Her family, however, disapproved of the engagement and a series of incidents eventually led Coleman to break it off. A week later she was dead. Suspicion still exists of a possible suicide. Buchanan remained a bachelor throughout his political career until the end of his days. He remains the only President never to marry.
In 1848 Buchanan purchased an estate in rural Lancaster County (PA) for $9000, shortened the original name of "The Wheatlands" to Wheatland, and lived there prior to and following his term as president.
When Buchanan entered the White House in 1857 unwed, it would be his niece, Harriet Lane, who would assume the role of First Lady. Although only in her twenties, she achieved much success as White House hostess and was referred to as "Miss Lane" and the "New Democratic Queen".
