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Thomas C. Buchanan was a descendant of a pioneer Beaver County family that moved in the middle of the 19th century from the Southside to Beaver, where his father was a prominent attorney and business man. After graduation from Washington and Jefferson College and the University of Pittsburgh Law School, and Army service during World War 1, he began to practice law in Beaver. Active in Democratic politics, he was appointed Secretary of Forest and Waters by Governor Earle in 1935, and subsequently served both the Public Service and Public Utilities Commissions. Within several years after returning to private practice in 1945 he was appointed by President Truman to the Federal Power Commission, remaining in this post until 1953, when he returned again to Beaver and practiced law until his death in 1958.