William Insco Buchanan

William Insco Buchanan (September 10, 1853 – October 17, 1909)

Career Department chiefs, including Buchanan, of the World's Columbian Exposition, 1893. After receiving an education at the common schools in Ohio, he served as engrossing clerk of the Indiana House of Representatives from 1874 to 1875. After William McKinley became president, he kept Buchanan on, even though he was a Democrat and the new president was a Republican. Once Panama separated from Colombia in 1903, he was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt on December 17, 1903, to serve as United States Minister to Panama.

Later career Buchanan was Director General of the Pan-American Exposition, held in Buffalo, New York, from May 1 through November 2, 1901, and is credited with the construction, operation, and dismantling of the exposition. He was chosen by John G. Milburn, president of the exposition, as the exposition was planned with a Latin American theme and they wanted someone who knew the South American countries well. President McKinley was assassinated at the exposition by anarchist Leon Czolgosz on September 6, 1901, and Roosevelt traveled to Buffalo where he was inaugurated shortly thereafter. In 1908 as special commissioner in Venezuela and by forbearance, tact, an understanding of the people with whom he was to negotiate and a masterly knowledge of the cases themselves, he succeeded in settling two of the cases, namely, the case of the New York & Bermudez Company and recovered all indemnity for the expulsion of A.F. Jaurett. At the time of his death, he was connected with the Westinghouse Company in London. Donald Insco Buchanan (1887–1928), a graduate of the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University.

He died suddenly on October 17, 1909, while in London on business. An autopsy revealed the cause of death was heart failure. His body was returned to the United States and he was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York. His papers are in the collection of The Buffalo History Museum.