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Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Our County and its People; A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York by Erastus Granger; pub. Boston History Co., 1898 Vol. 2 [5-8] MILLARD FILLMORE. MILLARD FILLMORE, who became president of the United States upon the death of ZACHARY TAYLOR, was born in Locke, Cayuga county, N.Y., January 7, 1800. He was a son of NATHANIEL and PHOEBE FILLMORE; the father was a native of Bennington, Vt., and descended from the early pioneers of New England. The family was possessed of only limited means, but in their new home in Cayuga county, whither they removed in 1798, NATHANIEL FILLMORE became a respected citizen, esteemed for his intelligence and his efforts for the advancement of education and religion. There the young son received the rudiment of education, and was constantly taught by his father what he was unable to learn at school. An intense love of books was developed in the young man in early life, which grew with his years and was largely instumental in shaping his destiny. On the 10th of March, 1820, the family arrived in Buffalo. In the mean time the son had begun work at the clothier's trade at the age of fifteen years, in what is now Livingston, Ontario county; but the re- stricted opportunities of that vocation were not at all pleasing to the ambitious young man and he soon left it and returned home, where he continued work on the farm, mingled with persistent study and read- ing. Again in the spring of his sixteenth year he was apprenticed to a clothier and although against his own inclinations he labored faith- fully until he had mastered the trade. In the fall of his eighteenth year he began teaching his first term of school in the town of Scott, Cortland county, N.Y., at the close of which he returned to work at his trade. During a few preceding years he had entertained the plan of becoming an attorney. His studious habits and expressed wishes attracted the attention of Judge WOOD, near his home, and he finally entered his office. Industry and zeal characterized his studies and he made rapid progress during the two years he remained in Judge WOOD'S office, at the end of which he determined to remove to Erie county, where his father and family had already settled. Arriving in the village by the lake in 1821, he resumed his studies, teaching a part of the time to earn funds for his necessary expenses. In 1826 he was admitted to practice in the Court of Common Pleas, and settled in Aurora, where he taught school and attended to such practice in law as came to him. He won the first case he tried, and from that time until 1830 he made that village his home, gradually acquiring reputation for ability, integrity, and such political influence as he had acquired from his connection with the Whig party and sharing in its local affairs. In 1826 he was married to ABIGAIL POWERS, daughter of Rev. LEMUEL POWERS, of Erie county. In 1827 he was admitted to the higher courts. Mr. FILLMORE had learned practical surveying and owned a com- pass, and while he remained in Aurora, added materially to his income by surveying in various towns. He soon took an advanced position in his profession, his practice extending largely into the Supreme Court. He showed little disposition to seek political preferment, but he was an impressive speaker and was frequently called upon to address poli- tical meetings. In 1828 he received the nomination for the Assembly and was elected, thus first entering public life. His career in the Assembly, while in no sense brilliant, was strictly honorable and so satisfactory to his constituents that he was re-elected in 1829. In 1830 he settled in Buffalo, where he entered into partnership with JOSEPH CLARY and in the same year was sent for the third time to the Assembly, where he continued to add to his high repute. Anti Masonry was then rampant throughout the country and no where more so than in Western New York, where the party lines between that misguided organi- zation and the adminstration party were closely drawn. The new party had a large majority in this section and found no difficulty in electing its candidates. Mr. FILLMORE became affiliated with the Anti-Masons and in 1832 was chosen by them to represent the Thirtieth District in the Twenty-third Congress. This success in life attained at the age of thirty-two years, was attributable to his native good qualities; he had no aid from extraneous sources, none of the qualities by which the masses are most easily captivated; he was not a brilliant orator, nor would he abandon his own convictions to please others. He succeeded thus rapidly by virtue of his industry, perse- verance, clear judgment and wise foresight, all of which qualities were dominent in his nature. Mr. FILLMORE formed the distinquished law firm of FILLMORE, HALL & HAVEN, his partners being NATHAN K. HALL and SOLOMON G. HAVEN, both of whom were to reach high positions in the political field. Returning from his first Congretional term, Mr. FILLMORE industriously pursued his profession for two years, when he was again elected to the same office in the fall of 1836, and re-elected in 1838. The record of his conservative, honorable, and successful career is a part of general history and so raised him in the estimation of the people of his district that for the fourth time, in 1840, he was elected to the same office. In the fall of 1847 when the first State officers were chosen under the new constitution, Mr. FILLMORE was nominated for the office of comptroller by the Whigs. The Democracy was then hopelessly disunited and Mr. FILLMORE and his associates on that ticket were elected by large majorities. In the Philadelphia National Convention of 1848, Gen. ZACHARY TAYLOR was nominated for the presidency and MILLARD FILLMORE for the vice-presidency. The famous Buffalo convention of that year, which is described elsewhere in this work, followed on the 9th of August, one of the consequences of which was the election of both TAYLOR and FILL- MORE to the highest two offices in the gift of the people. On the 9th day of July, 1850, General TAYLOR died and Mr. FILLMORE became presi- dent of the United States. He was then fifty years old, and it was only twenty-one years since he first entered public life. He formed a strong cabinet by placing DANIEL WEBSTER in the office of secretary of state; THOMAS CORWIN, secretary of the treasury; JOHN J. CRITTENDEN, attorney-general, and his former student and partner, NATHAN K. HALL, postmaster-general. Congress was in session when Mr. FILLMORE became president, and all through the ensuing summer that body wrestled with the historical com- promise measure, the influence of which upon the country was to be so momentous. Those measures were embodied in five acts, the most impor- tant of which was the fugitive slave law, the other relating to the admission of California, the organization of territories of New Mexico and Utah without prohibition of slavery, and the abolition of slave trade in the District of Columbia. The president signed all of these measures and was loudly denounced by a part of the Whig party, parti- cularly for his action on the slave law. It is not necessary at this time to discuss the wisdom of his policy in that connection; that he acted conscientiously there is no doubt. After the adoption of the compromise measures, his course was generally in harmony with the Whig party and was creditable in every way. He was, however, considered the leader of the conservative element in the party and when the Whig convention of 1852 assembled, he was opposed by all of those who called themselves more progressive and radical, especially in regard to slavery. Hence, General SCOTT received the nomination for presi- dent. The Whig party was overwhelmingly defeated, so that it made little difference to Mr. FILLMORE. Upon the formation of the American, or Know-Nothing party, Mr. FILLMORE joined its ranks and in 1856, after the organization of the Republican party, he was nominated by the new party at its national convention in February for the high office which he had so recently left. The disaster that followed the new political organizaton is well known. That was the last appearance of Mr. FILLMORE in the poli- tical field. He retired to his beautiful home in Buffalo, where he was surrounded by friends and enjoyed to the utmost the happy domestic relations which fell to his lot. His death took place on the 8th of March, 1874. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Memorial and Family History of Erie County, New York Vol. I, Biographical and Genealogical The Genealogical Publishing Co., Buffalo; 1906-8 [49-51] MILLARD FILLMORE. Buffalo has given the United States two Presi- dents. The first of these illustrious citizens to attain the office was MILLARD FILLMORE. Mr. FILLMORE was born in Locke, Cayuga County, N. Y., January 7, 1800, being the second child and eldest son of NATHANIEL FILLMORE and PHOEBE MILLARD. His father was born in Ben- nington, Vt., and his mother was a native of Pittsfield, Mass. His parents were among the pioneer settlers of the so-called Military Tract, and removed from Locke to Sempronius, Cayuga County. NATHANIEL FILLMORE was a farmer who cleared his land and built his own home, and like not a few other distinguished Americans, MILLARD FILLMORE was reared in a log house. Till he was fifteen years old young FILLMORE worked on his father's farm and attended the district schools. As a lad he was apprenticed to BENJAMIN HUNGERFORD, a carder and cloth- dresser of Sparta, N. Y., and in 1815 was re-apprenticed to the same business with ZACCHEUS CHENEY and ALVIN KELLOGG of Newhope, N. Y. While in their employ Mr. FILLMORE began a system of self-education, reading every standard work to which he had access. When eighteen years old he taught school for a term in the town of Scott. In 1818 he visited Western New York and later attended school at Canandaigua. Meantime he had become ambitious to study law, and returning to Cayuga County, he entered the law-office of JUDGE WALTER WOOD, at Martville. In 1821 he went to Aurora, Erie County, taught a winter school at East Aurora and obtained some practice in justice's courts. In the spring of 1822 he came to Buffalo and taught a district school, and the same year became a student in the law office of ASA RICE and JOSEPH CLARY. In the spring of 1823 he was admitted to practice in the Court of Common Pleas, and opening an office at East Aurora he practiced there till 1830. In 1827 he was admitted attorney of the Supreme Court, and became counselor in 1829. In May, 1830, he removed to Buffalo where he formed a law partnership with JOSEPH CLARY. He acquired a large and successful practice, which was continued till 1848, when his duties in public life obliged him to relinquish his professional pursuits. Mr. FILLMORE was elected to the Assembly in 1828 and was twice re- elected. In 1832 he was elected to Congress and was re-elected for three successive terms, declining a fifth nomination. In 1843 the Whig National Convention at Philadelphia nominated Mr. FILLMORE for Vice- President. He was elected, and by the death of GENERAL TAYLOR, July 9, 1850, succeeded him as President of the United States. He attained the presidency at a critical period in national affairs, and administered its duties with great ability and unswerving conscientiousness. However others might differ from him in matters of party principle or governmental policy, no fair-minded man questioned his purity of motive or his sterling patriotism. In 1856, Mr. FILLMORE was nominated for the Presidency by the National American Convention, but the party which chose him for its leader was in the decline of its power and the Democrats carried the country. At the close of the campaign Mr. FILLMORE retired from public life. The rest of his days he passed in Buffalo in the pursuits of a scholar and the activities of the citizen. He died March 8, 1874. Mr. Fillmore was married twice, his first wife being ABIGAIL POWER, of Moravia, N. Y., whom he wedded February 5, 1826. She died in 1853, and February 10, 1858, Mr. FILLMORE married Mrs. CAROLINE C. McINTOSH. =========================================================================== If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access the more of our information about Erie County, N.Y., by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/ny/erie/ ===========================================================================