Abigail Powers Fillmore
Abigail was born in Stillwater,
New York, 1798. She was the youngest of seven children born to Reverend
Lemuel Leland Powers, a Baptist minister. Her father died shortly
after her birth. Her mother moved the family westward,
thinking her scanty funds would go further in a less settled region, and ably
educated her small son and daughter beyond the usual frontier level with the
help of her late husband's library.
After moving to Cayuga
County, New York, by wagon train, they moved in with Cyprus Powers because of
their impoverished state. Her father left behind a large library of his
personal books, and she was educated by her mother from this wealth of books.
She came to love literature and became proficient in other subjects such as
math, government, history, philosophy, and geography. After finishing
school she became a teacher.
In 1814 Abigail became a
part-time schoolteacher at the Sempronius Village school. In 1817 she became a
full-time teacher and in 1819 she took on another teaching job and began to
teach at the private New Hope Academy. Then, in 1824 she became a private tutor
in Lisle to three of her cousins. She was then asked to open a private school
in Broome County, she opened the school, and in 1825, went back to Sempronius
to teach in her original position.
In 1819, she took a teaching post at the new academy in New
Hope, where her oldest pupil was 19-year-old Millard Fillmore. The world of
knowledge and Fillmore's steady progress in it drew them together, and
gradually the relationship of teacher and student evolved into romantic
attachment.
After a long courtship, Millard, aged 26, and Abigail, aged 27,
were married on February 5, 1826. Without
a honeymoon, they settled at East Aurora, New York. Mrs. Fillmore
continued to teach school until the birth of her first child and maintained a
lifelong interest in education. She shared her husband's love of books and
helped build their personal library.
They had two children, a son and a daughter.
Millard Fillmore won election to the U.S. House of
Representatives for the first time in 1833. He served four terms in Congress.
In 1848, he because Vice President under Zachary Taylor and Abigail became the
second lady of the United States. Taylor died suddenly in mid-1850 and Fillmore
seceded him, becoming the nation’s 13th president (1850-1853).
When Abigail first moved into the White House, she was
reportedly appalled at the fact that there was no library in it. With a
special appropriation of $2,000 from Congress, she spent contented hours
selecting books for a White House library. In the library was Shakespeare,
history and geography books, and her piano, which she had taught herself to
play. She invited writers such as William Thackeray, Charles Dickens, and
Washington Irving, to meet with her and performance artists like Jenny
Lind, essentially creating a White House literary salon. "She was
reportedly a witty and even erudite conversationalist, the most intellectual of
the early first ladies.
When her husband was away, he missed her and wrote her letters
about politics, and she would write back offering him advice and counsel on
political matters. In fact, he valued her opinion so much that he reportedly
never made any important decision without first consulting her. Some history
suggests that Abigail advised her husband not to sign the Fugitive Slave
Act, which he did in the end sign, losing his nomination for a second term as
Abigail predicted would happen if he signed the Act.
As First Lady, Abigail Fillmore left a legacy of women and work.
As First Lady, the public was aware that she was educated and had worked as a
teacher. They also knew about the library she created, and that teaching is an
honorable profession. Abigail paved the way for future women and future first
ladies to receive an education and become teachers.
At
the outdoor inaugural ceremonies for Franklin Pierce in 1853,
she caught a cold and the next day came down with a fever, which turned into
bronchitis and then developed into pneumonia. At age 55 Abigail
died just 26 days after leaving the White House, on March 30, 1853, at the
Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., the shortest post-presidential
life of any former first lady. Her sudden and quick death became the most
widely reported death of a first lady. She was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery
in Buffalo, New York.
The memorial stone was placed by the Abigail
Fillmore Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, of
Buffalo.
