In 1809, the prosperous Coleman and his family moved to Lancaster. A daughter and a son died in the following two years; two other daughters married, leaving only Ann Caroline and Sarah at home with their parents. But before long, tragedy would strike these two young women.

An unmarried 22-year-old, the dark-haired Ann Caroline began seeing James Buchanan sometime during 1818, after being introduced to him by her cousin Eliza Jacobs, who was being courted by Buchanan's employer Molton Rogers. Buchanan was no stranger to Ann: she frequently observed the tall, handsome man pass by her window on his way to and from the courthouse. Soon they became engaged, but Ann's parents were not happy. Especially troubling to Robert Coleman was Buchanan's checkered record at Dickinson College, from which he had been dismissed, then reinstated, and at which he had twice come under faculty discipline. Coleman was proud of his wealth and wary of anyone he believed might have had designs on it.

Buchanan's long hours at work increasingly kept him away from Ann, and she too grew suspicious of his motives. Returning from Philadelphia, Buchanan tarried at the home of an acquaintance, in the company of the man's sister-in-law, before continuing on to see Ann. Upon hearing of his dalliance, e en though it may have been purely innocent, she immediately broke their engagement.

Ann Caroline was sent to Philadelphia to help her recover from the depression she suffered after this affair, but the opposite occurred. Just after midnight on December 9, 1819, Ann Caroline was found dead. The official cause of death was noted as "hysterics," but most residents of Lancaster suspected suicide.

Buchanan was devastated. Ann Caroline's father rebuffed him refusing his request to attend the funeral, and he became the subject or much conversation and conjecture. Some believe Buchanan never married because of his failed relationship with Ann Caroline Coleman-her portrait still hangs at Wheatland, his residence in Lancaster County (see "The Political Ascent of James Buchanan" by Kurt d. Zwikl in the Spring 1991 issue).

Ann Caroline's sister Sarah also met a sad end. Smitten with William Augustus Muhlenberg, co-rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster, she found herself inextricably caught in the middle of a bitter dispute between the Reverend Muhlenberg and her father over evening worship services. After he father's death in August 1825, Sarah hoped to marry Muhlenberg, but Robert Coleman's power reached beyond the grave: his will had granted his sons Edward and James the right of approval of their sister's future husband. Edward the eldest, disliked Muhlenberg, and Sarah fled to Philadelphia where she killed herself.

The following generation of Colemans saw their fortune swell once again. George Dawson Coleman, son of James, owned a one-sixth share of the Cornwall Ore Banks. He experimented with innovative anthracite furnaces, invested in railroads, and built houses, a school, and a church for his employees. He was a much-loved member of the community and a tireless public servant. He was elected several times to the state legislature. On his death in 1878, the entire region mourned his passing.

Although anthracite blast furnaces and other technical innovations brought about increasing competition by the 1840's, Cornwall Iron Furnace carried on. Over the years, improvements were made to the operation in efforts to keep it competitive with newer furnaces. In the late eighteenth century, the large, inefficient bellows had been replaced with two "blowing tub," cylindrical casks in which air was alternately compressed by pistons driven by the wheel, providing a more uniform blast. Water wheel power was succeeded by a steam engine in 1841. The furnace was remodeled in the 1850s by the rebuilding of the stack. In 1848, the Colemans turned over the management of the furnace to young West Point graduate, John Fulton Reynolds, who managed it until the Civil War broke out. Reynolds resigned from the operation to accept a general's commission in the Union Army. He died heroically when serving as the first Union commander at the Battle of Gettysburg.