Gustave W. Buchen was born September 25, 1886 on a farm near Lyndon, Wisconsin. He was orphaned early, but put himself through the University of Wisconsin, receiving his B.A. in 1909 and LL.B. in 1912. He taught briefly at the University of Oregon and the University of Wisconsin before being admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1912.
His participation in politics did not begin until 1936 when he became chairman of the Sheboygen County Republican Club and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in the same year. He was elected state senator in 1942 and reelected in 1946 and 1948. His principal interest was in mental health and conservation and he sponsored various bills in the senate on these subjects.
Senator Buchen was interested in Sheboygen history and published Historic Sheboygen County in 1944. Senator Buchen died on December 3, 1951.
