Report in Memory of Robert Buchanan. ■ 75 



man of business. About the time this engagement was made he happened 

 to be at Liverpool, Ohio, and was one of the curious crowd that gathered to 

 witness the ''Orleans" pass down the river, on her trial trip, being the first 

 steamboat launched on the Ohio river. In 1816 he was in a store in West 

 Union, in which he was a partner, also at Brush Creek furnace, the first 

 establishment of that kind in southern Ohio. He then became one of the 

 pioneers in opening up the present vast iron interest of the Ohio valley. In 

 1822, having closed up his business inWest Union, he acted as Captain of the 

 steamboat Maysville, a small boat plying between Cincinnati and New 

 Orleans. 



Leaving the river in 1823, Mr. Buchanan went into the wholesale grocery 

 business with Chas. McAllister, as a partner, on Main and Front streets. This 

 firm was the first in the West to make a specialty of the grocery trade. The 

 city at that time contained about 10,500 inhabitants, while it had but 6,000 

 •inhabitants in 1817. He was President, from 1831 to 1835, of the Commercial 

 Bank, established in Cincinnati after the sweeping crash in 1819. This bank 

 is still in existence. He was one of the commissioners named in the charters 

 to organize the Little Miami and the Ohio and Mississippi Eailroad Com- 

 panies. He also assisted in establishing the Widows' Home, and in organ- 

 izing several insurance companies, in one of which he served as President. 

 He took a lively interest in the construction of the Whitewater Canal, and 

 for a time was President of the Company. He served for a long period as 

 President of the Cincinnati Historical Society, and also of the Cincinnati 

 Horticultural Society, organized at his house in 1843, He was also, at one 

 time. President of the Western Academy of Natural Sciences at Cincinnati. 

 Soon after the organization of this Society he was one among others who, 

 as members of the Western Academy of Natural Sciences, donated to this 

 Society all its books, money and fossils which now form an important part 

 of our collection. He also, in connection with some friends, transferred his 

 fine collection of botanical specimens, his library and fossils, to this Society. 

 For more than 20 years he was President of the Cincinnati College, and 

 remained President to the time of his death. He was one of the principal 

 movers in projecting the beautiful and famous Spring Grove Cemetery in 

 1844, and was President of the Board of Directors continuously until his 

 death. In 1861 and 1862 he was President of the Cincinnati, Wilmington and 

 Zanesville Railroad Company. 



These and other positions, responsible or complimentary, filled by Mr. 

 Buchanan, during his long and busy career, came to him mainly as a recog- 

 nition and reward of his far-sighted view of what the future had in store. 



