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| Image courtesy of Library of Congress |
FILLMORE, Millard, a Representative from New York, Vice President and 13th President of
the United States; born in Locke Township (now Summerhill), Cayuga County,
N.Y., January 7, 1800; reared on a farm; largely self-taught; apprenticed to a
clothier; taught school in Buffalo while studying law; admitted to the bar in
1823 and commenced practice in East Aurora, N.Y.; moved to Buffalo, N.Y., in
1830; member, State assembly 1829-1831; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-third
Congress (March 4, 1833-March 3, 1835); elected to the Twenty-fifth,
Twenty-sixth, and Twenty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1837-March 3, 1843);
declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1842; unsuccessful Whig
candidate for Governor in 1844; State comptroller 1847-1849; elected Vice
President of the United States on the Whig ticket headed by Zachary Taylor in
1848, and was inaugurated March 4, 1849; became President upon the death of
President Taylor and served from July 10, 1850, to March 3, 1853; unsuccessful
candidate for the Whig nomination for president in 1852; unsuccessful candidate
for president on the National American ticket in 1856; commanded a corps of
home guards during the Civil War; traveled extensively; died in Buffalo, N.Y.,
March 8, 1874; interment in Forest Lawn Cemetery.
BibliographyRayback, Robert J.
Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President. Buffalo: Buffalo
Historical Society, 1959.
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