[2] This led to Coleman being hired as a bookkeeper by prominent iron masters Curtis and Peter Grubb of the Hopewell Forge furnace.

[5] After six months at the Hopewell Forge, he moved on to become a clerk at James Old's Quittapahilla Force furnace in Berks County, Pennsylvania.

[2] During the Revolutionary War, Coleman served briefly in the Pennsylvania militia lieutenant, marching aid in the doomed defense of New York.

[5] On October 4, 1773, Coleman married Anne Old (1756 – 1844), the oldest daughter of his employer James Old (1730 – 1809), at Reading Furnace, Chester County, Pennsylvania.

[2][9][3] The couple had nine children: William, Edward, Thomas Burd, Richard, James, Margaret, Ann Caroline, Harriet, and Sarah.

[5] The Colemans moved to a large brick mansion on East King Street in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1809, along with their youngest children: thirteen-year-old Ann Caroline, nine-year-old Harriet, and seven-year-old Sarah.

[10][5] Buchanan did not have a status or background, but was beginning to gain a reputation in law and politics, having served as both prosecuting attorney and state assemblyman.

[10] Coleman was apparently unhappy with Buchanan's checkered history at Dickinson College where he was disciplined by faculty twice and dismissed on one occasion.

[10] During October and November 1819, Buchanan was busy with the Columbia Bridge Company Supreme Court case in Philadelphia, many clients impacted by a collapsing economy, and with the Missouri problem with regards to slavery at the legislature—and apparently neglected Anne Caroline.

[10] Town gossips concluded that Buchanan "was tremendously ambitious to make money; that he was more affable and friendly to many young ladies than he ought to be as one betrothed; and finally, that he had been something less than an ardent suitor of Ann Coleman in recent weeks.

[10] Then, when he returned to Lancaster from Philadelphia, he first visited a colleague's home and spent the afternoon with the man's wife and her unmarried sister.

"[5] As Buchanan dealt with the worst of the financial crisis on November 29, 1819, Ann Caroline traveled to Philadelphia on December 4 to visit her sister Margaret who had married United States Congressman Joseph Hemphill in September 1806.

[10] Judge Thomas Kittera wrote, “At noon yesterday, I met this young lady on the street, in the vigour [sic] of health, and but a few hours after, her friends were mourning her death.

After night she was attacked with strong hysterical convulsions, which induced the family to send for physicians, who thought this would soon go off, as it did; but her pulse gradually weakened until midnight, when she died.

[5] Buchanan was so devastated by her death that he vowed never to marry as "his affections were buried in the grave.”[10] He eventually became the only bachelor President in the history of the United States.

[12] Muhlenberg wrote in his diary, “But for no earthly consideration whatever, not even the attainment of the dear object of my heart will I sacrifice what I believe to be the interests of my church.