All the Region’s Presidents

By Phillip J. Obermiller

and Thomas E. Wagner

While JD Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy, is a heartbeat from the presidency it seems appropriate to consider the Appalachian presidents. There have been four born in what today is known as the federal Appalachian Region: James Buchanan, Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, and Joseph R. Biden. None of the deceased presidents are buried in Appalachia, a fate not atypical for Appalachian migrants. 

James Buchanan, c. 1850-1868. (Library of Congress photos.)

James Buchanan (in office 1857-1861)

Born in a log cabin in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania, James Buchanan was the second of 11 children in a family with an Ulster-Scot heritage. He left the region at age 16 to attend college in Carlysle, Pennsylvania, and then law school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He described his birthplace as “a rugged but romantic spot, and the mountain and the mountain stream under the scenery is captivating. I have warm attachments for it…” 

Buchanan’s career took him through stints in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, US House of Representatives and Senate; as Minister to Russia and later to the United Kingdom; and as Secretary of State before occupying the White House from 1857 to 1861. Buchanan never married and is believed by some scholars to be the nation’s first gay president. 

His politics have led a number of historians to label him as the worst president in U.S. history. Buchanan supported states’ rights and the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision that deprived both free and enslaved Black people of citizenship. He appointed enslavers to his Cabinet and did little to calm the festering sectional tensions that would result in the Civil War, leaving the ensuing national crisis to his successor, Abraham Lincoln. Tired of politics, Buchanan

Wheatland, Buchanan's residence in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

did not run for a second term, preferring a reclusive life at Wheatland, his mansion in Lancaster. In the carriage on the way to Lincoln’s inauguration he is reported to have said: “My dear sir, if you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland, you are a happy man indeed.”

Portrait of Ulysses S. Grant by Matthew Brady. Brady photographed many presidents in his lifetime, including Abraham Lincoln and Martin Van Buren.

Ulysses S. Grant (in office 1869-1877)

Born and raised in Appalachian Ohio, Ulysses S. Grant started life in Point Pleasant which he described as a “quiet and unpretentious Ohio River hamlet.” The family soon moved to Georgetown, Ohio, where he received an “indifferent education,” but also found a passion for riding horses. His formal education continued at schools in two other river towns in the region, Maysville, Kentucky, (Maysville Seminary) and Ripley, Ohio (John Rankin Academy), before he was nominated to West Point at age 17. 

Grant became a decorated officer in the Mexican-American War before becoming a national hero for his role in leading Union forces to victory in the Civil War. His early years in the army separated him from his wife and family leading to bouts of loneliness and a lifelong fondness for alcohol.   

Having served as the Commanding General of the U.S. Army, he became acting Secretary of War prior to serving two terms as President (1869-1877). Historians note his policy toward Native Americans, vigorous enforcement of civil and voting rights for Blacks, and securing the North and South as a single nation within the Union. Grant’s second term, however, was marred by mismanagement of the nation’s economy and corruption within his administration. 

During his presidency Grant noted that he would “hail the day he left public office as the happiest of my life, except possibly the day I left West Point.”  

William McKinley, in office from 1897-until his assassination in 1901, was the last U.S. president to have served in the Civil War.

William McKinley (in office 1897-1901)

Born in 1843 to parents of English and Scots-Irish heritage, William McKinley spent his early years in Ohio’s Trumbull and Mahoning counties, which share their Ohio River borders with West Virginia. He attended the Poland Academy in Mahoning County, where he excelled in debate and public speaking. According to one assessment, his early life in Niles and Poland “instilled in him a strong moral compass and the needs and aspirations of the American people, which helped him in his political career.” 

President McKinley, left, in Asheville, North Carolina, 1897.

McKinley enlisted in the Union army in 1861. Although he served most of his hitch in West Virginia, he was promoted to second lieutenant for his service in the Battle of Antietam. After earning a law degree, he used it to defend a group of striking coal miners without charge. In 1876 his support for labor was strong enough for him to be elected a U.S. Representative who favored tariffs to protect jobs and industries. In 1891 McKinley was elected Governor of Ohio for the first of two successive terms; while in office he oversaw the passage of a law that fined employers who dismissed employees solely for belonging to a union. 

After famously campaigning from his front porch, William McKinley was elected President in 1886. Despite his pacifist inclinations (“Let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not in conflict; and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war.”), he presided over the Spanish-American War that brought Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines into the American political ambit.   

McKinley was inaugurated into a second term with Theodore Roosevelt as his vice-president in 1901. Within months he died from the wounds of an assassin’s bullets. 

Joe Biden's official presidential portrait.

Joe Biden (in office 2021-2025)

Joseph R. “Joe” Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the county seat of Lackawanna County and situated in the foothills of the Moosic Mountains. Biden once said during a visit, “Scranton becomes part of your heart. It crawls into your heart. I’m so proud to be back.” When he was 10 his Irish Catholic family moved to Delaware, where he was educated at the Archmere Academy and the University of Delaware Newark. 

After completing law school at Syracuse University Biden served one term on the Newcastle County (DE) Council before winning a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1972. He was reelected to that position six times, rising to leadership positions on both the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees. Biden returned to the Senate after a failed presidential run in 1988. His 2008 presidential campaign resulted in his serving two terms as vice president under Barack Obama before he was elected president in 2020. 

Throughout his long political career Joe Biden remained true to the values he learned early in life. At one point he commented, “Folks, where we come from matters.” 

It is too soon to assess JD Vance’s political fortunes, but he already stands among the Appalachian vice-presidents: Joe Biden; Thomas A. Hendricks, born in Muskingum County, Ohio, who served under Grover Cleveland for eight months before his death in 1885; and Charles G. Dawes, born in Washington County, Ohio, who served one term as vice-president under Calvin Coolidge before being replaced by Charles Curtis for Coolidge’s second term. 

Although some challenge Vance’s status as an Appalachian (he was born outside the region in Middletown, Ohio), we include him here because he was born into an Appalachian migrant family, and it would be unfair to discount the heritage of thousands of second-generation migrants like Vance who still identify as Appalachian.

Phil Obermiller's mother was born in the mountains of southern Italy. Tom Wagner traces his roots to the mountains of Tennessee. Both authors are affiliated with the University of Cincinnati’s School of Planning.