Founding

The city now known as Buchanan began in March 1835. It sits on land bought in 1834 by the Young Men’s Colonization Society of Pennsylvania, a predominantly Quaker group, and the New York Colonization Society.

The town was originally called Bassa Cove based on its location at a sheltered bay at the junction of the St. John’s River and the Benson (a stream). It sits nearly opposite Edina.

Footnote: J. W. Lugenbeel, “Sketches of Liberia – No. 2,” African Repository, July 1850, p. 207.