DR. JOHN LEE BUCHANAN.
John Lee Buchanan was born in Smyth county, Virginia, June 19,
1831, the son of Patrick C. Buchanan and his wife Margaret A., nee
Graham. Patrick C. Buchanan, born in Smyth county in October, 1799,
died April, 1872, was a son of John Buchanan, of Scotch descent. His
widow survives him, living still in Smyth county. She was born in
Wythe county, Virginia, in March, 1808, the daughter of Samuel and
Rachel (Graham) Graham.
John Lee Buchanan was educated at Emory and Henry College,
graduating in 1856. Until 1878 he was one of the faculty of that college,
except for the years of the war when he served the Confederate
States in the mining department. In 1878-9 he was professor of Latin
at the Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee; in 1879 was elected
president of Emory and Henry College, and afterward of the Virginia
Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1880. Subsequently he was
joint principal of the Martha Washington College, Virginia, until December,
1886, at which date he was elected to his present position, Superintendent
of Public Instruction, for the term of four years. He is a member
of the M. E. Church (South), and of the Masonic fraternity.
In Washington county, Virginia, August 4, 1859, Dr. Buchanan
married Frances E. Wiley, born in that county. Their children were born
in the order named: Lillian W., died in October, 1863; Willie P.; Maggie
L., married Charles M. Yeates, of the U. S. geological survey;
Lizzie H., Horace Graham, Raymond W., John Lee, jr., Grace P., Frank
E. Mrs. Buchanan is a daughter of Dr. E. E. Wiley, who was born in Boston,
Massachusetts, in October, 1814, and has been a citizen of Washington
county, Virginia, for the past fifty years, during the larger part
of this period connected with Emory and Henry College as professor
and president, and still connected with that institution. He was a son
of Rev. Ephraim Wiley, of the Methodist church. Her mother, now deceased,
was Elizabeth Hammond, born in Middletown, Connecticut, in
1814.
