Joseph Barr Buchanan

Athlete. Studied at Chicago Medical University.

In the Observer, Volume X, Issue 588, 5 April 1890, Page 18: "Joe Buchanan is taking our American friends quite by storm, and he is most highly spoken of by the press and public generally. He is spoken of as the 'Young Hercules', and the following paragraph, describing an athletic display by the Olympians, speaks for itself: J. Barr Buchanan, the New Zealand Hercules, then toyed with tremendous dumbbells and mammoth clubs and astonished the spectators by the cleverness of his performance and the marvellous development of his mighty biceps. Mr Buchanan, who is a genuine amateur, will become a member of the club."

His dates of birth and death are from the California Death Index, on Ancestry. The date of his marriage and name/age of his bride are from Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index, also through Ancestry.

The 1901 UK census has Joseph living as a boarder, aged 32, in Finchley, Middlesex, with his 8-month-old daughter Florence. He is a photographer who was born in New Zealand, while his daughter was born in Finchley.

In the 1910 US Federal Census he is living in Los Angeles with his wife and three children. It states his father was Scottish, his mother Irish, his birthplace New Zealand, and he immigrated to US in 1890. He is an artist/photographer.

In the 1920 census he is in Los Angeles with his wife and three children and describes himself as a photographer with a studio.

In the 1930 census he is living just with his daughter, although described as 'married' rather than 'widowed'. His occupation is 'artist', in the 'picture' industry.

In the 1940 US Federal Census (original can be seen online through Ancestry) he is at W 15th St., Los Angeles, aged 72, and describes himself as an artist with his own studio. Living with him are his daughter Florence Buchanan, a spinster, age 37, no occupation listed, who was born in England, and a lodger, Joseph Holt, age 29, born in Missouri, who is a musician in an orchestra.