Peter Buchanan (1798-aft1866)

Biography
Peter Buchanan, Jr. was born January 14, 1798 to Peter Buchanan (AFN:BMZP-32) and Hannah Bloomer (AFN:BMZP-47) at Cambridge, Washington County, New York. He married Anna Mathews (AFN:26QD-DG) in 1823 at Ellery, Chatuaqua County, New York. The couple had ten children.

He was baptized in or before 1834 for in that year he accompanied the Prophet Joseph Smith on the trek to Missouri in Zions Camp. Peter Buchannan was named to the First Quorum of the Seventy February 1835, and thereby comes to be enumerated with the General Authorities.

Although we find no record of his trek west, it seems likely that he accompanied the saints to the Great Basin, for his wife and at least two of his children died in Utah.

Eliza Jane Buchanan History

 * Eliza Jane Buchanan History

Story Excerpts. Peter Buchanan, Jr., not satisfied with religion, was introduced into the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in its early days, the early 1830s. For by 1834 he was a participant of Zion's Camp (1834) and the following year one of the original members of the First Quorum of Seventy at which time they moved from Kirtland, Ohio to Cleveland, Ohio where he rented a farm. They remained on this farm a few years before moving to Des Moines, Iowa where they rented another farm on banks of the Des Moines River.

They now moved to what Mother called Garden Grove (Iowa). Here their preparations for the journey across the plains began in the late spring of 1851. Their captain’s name was Walton. Grandfather had not yet caught up to them as so Grandmother, her two sons and three daughters were all on their way to the “Valley of the Mountains.” One of her sons had joined a company of gold diggers and was bound for California. His mother, nor his brothers and sisters never seen him again. His father located him years after, and talked to him, but he did not care to come to Utah.

Mother and the children were in the Walton wagon train (1851) and eventually the family settled in Utah County, Utah. Mother (Ann) went to work for Stephen Markham and became one of his plural wives in 1852 because she had thought Peter had been lost and died.

Father Peter Buchanan came to Utah and was sent on down to Spanish Fork. It had been about fifteen years (circa 1866) since the family had left Council Bluffs and Grandmother always felt he was dead. He found his wife married to another man and of course this was a great blow to him. He stayed there and lived with my mother and Aunt Hannah for some time and then decided to go away. He was still firm in his belief that Joseph Smith’s church was the right one.

Zions Camp Participant
One of the most interesting episodes in the early history of LDS Church was the march of Zion's Camp (1834). The members of the Church in Missouri were being persecuted, and the Prophet Joseph made it a matter of prayer and received a revelation on February 24, 1834. The Lord instructed the Prophet to assemble at least one hundred young and middle-aged men and to go to the land of Zion, or Missouri. (See | D&C 130:19–34.)

Zion’s Camp, a group of approximately one hundred and fifty men, gathered at Kirtland, Ohio, in the spring of 1834 and marched to Jackson County, Missouri. By the time they reached Missouri, the camp had increased to approximately two hundred men.

1850 US Census
Taken at District 14, Decatur County, Iowa


 * Peter Buchanan (53)
 * Hanna Buchanan (47)
 * German Buchanan (23)
 * Benjamin Buchanan (20)
 * Hanna Buchanan (17)
 * Eliza J Buchanan (13)
 * Lucy E Buchanan (7)

1851 Walton Wagon Company
It is not known why Peter joined this wagon company with his family. It is said that he still had good feelings for his wife and the church.
 * Harry Walton Garden Grove Company -


 * Buchanan, Anna Mathews (48)
 * Buchanan, Benjamin	(20)
 * Buchanan, Eliza Jane	(14)
 * Buchanan, German (25)
 * Buchanan, Hannah Ann (14)
 * Buchanan, Lucy Ellen (8)

1864 Zions Camp Festival
Peter Buchanan listed as one of the attendees at the great festival held at the Salt Lake Social Hall 10-Oct-1864 to honor the veterans of the Zions Camp.


 * Zions Camp 1864 Festival