Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small]

ENGRAVED EXPRESSLY FOR WEAVER'S LIVES AND GRAVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS.

[ocr errors][ocr errors]
[graphic]
[graphic][merged small]

MILLARD FILLMORE.

THIRTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

OTHING in American biography, is more thoroughly American than the story of Millard Fillmore's life. It compasses the distance from the least to the greatest in human condition-from the farm to the presidency. And it is so full of what is genuine and common in the life

of the American people, that it illustrates the meaning of this government and the providential power of this American development of humanity. Here is a great life which shoots up from a humble home in the forest, because it grows from a strong root of human worth and is nourished by freedom and the fostering aids of wholesome christian society.

BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE.

Milliard's father was Nathaniel Fillmore, of Bennington, Vermont, who fought as a lieutenant in the battle of Bennington, under General Stark. His grandfather had the same name and was a soldier in the French war. Millard's mother was the daughter of Doctor Abiathar Millard, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. She is said to have been a woman of great ability, personal worth and accomplishments. Mr. Fillmore, early in life, went into the wilderness of Cayuga county, New York, where Millard was born January 7, 1800. The place he purchased in the wilderness was four miles from any neighbor. He soon found that the title

to his land was defective, and in 1802 he left it and went to Sempronius, now Niles, where he lived till 1819, when he moved to Erie county.

Millard was trained to the work of the farm, having only the simplest advantages for the rudiments of an education. At fifteen he had read almost nothing but his primary school books and the bible. At this time he was sent into Livingston county to learn the clothier's trade. After a few months an arrangement was made for him to pursue the same business, near his father's. Here he found a small village library, from which he read all his odd time for four years. He was now nineteen, well grown, manly, intelligent. The village library had quite transformed him. Judge Walter Wood had watched him with interest, and suggested to him that he ought to study law. Millard indicated his lack of education and money. The judge. told him that hard study would supply the want of education, and he would himself furnish the needed money. So he left his trade for the law office of Judge Wood, where in study and business and winter school teaching, he spent two profitable years. Such a friend as Judge Wood had changed the course of his life, and put him into that ascending way which was so important to him, and for which his benefactor was amply repaid in due time.

In the fall of 1821 he went to his father's new home in Erie county; and the next spring into a law office in Buffalo. While studying here he supported himself by teaching school, assisting the post master and doing such little tasks as he could get.

MR. FILLMORE THE LAWYER AND PUBLIC MAN.

In the spring of 1823, Mr. Fillmore was admitted to the bar and began practice in the village of Aurora. He remained here seven years, and while here, married Miss Abigail Powers, daughter of Reverend Lemuel Powers.

His success as a lawyer gained him an invitation to a partnership with an experienced lawyer in Buffalo. But before going, he took his seat in the lower house in the legislature to which he

« PreviousContinue »