today on the ancestral findings podcast
abigail powers fillmore was among the most educated of the early first ladies
and her influence on working women and education can still be felt in the atmosphere of the white
house today the white house even has a library because of her here is her intriguing story
born march 13th 1798 in stillwater new york abigail powers would one day become our nation's
13th first lady she was the daughter of lemuel powers and abigail newland her father lemuel was
a baptist minister and died shortly after abigail was born her mother moved the family to moravia
new york which was a little west of stillwater and not far from the family farm of her future
husband's parents her mother moved her small daughter and son westward because she believed her
meager money would go further in a less settled area she was right between the lesser expenses
in moravia and the benefit of having lumiel's impressive library of books with her abigail's
mother was able to educate her daughter and son well above what normal frontier children received
though her mother educated her and her brother in their early years abigail still received an
exceptional education because of her mother's teachings she developed a love of literature she
also became intrigued by math history geography philosophy and politics abigail went from her
mother's teaching to finishing school which was what high school was called back in those times
and from there to be a teacher herself she even continued to teach after marrying future u.s
president millard fillmore making her the first first lady to continue working after marriage
abigail actually had quite an impressive teaching career beginning in a part-time teaching job with
the centronius village school in 1814 she became full-time in 1817 and then took on a second job
in 1819 at the new hope academy she taught there until 1824 when she was asked to come to lyle to
be a private tutor to three of her young cousins while tutoring she was asked to open a private
school in boone county new york which she did in 1825 but only stayed long enough to open it
after the school was opened abigail went back to her original teaching job at the centronius
village school it was while teaching at new hope academy that the 20 year old abigail met the 19
year old millard fillmore who was her oldest pupil there they both shared a love of knowledge and it
drew them together after a time their closest friends developed into a romantic attachment
in those days a teacher and student becoming romantically involved
was not considered scandalous especially when they were so close in age to one another however while
they did become romantically linked they did not marry right away in fact their engagement was an
exceptionally long one for the times they did not marry until abigail was 27 and millard was 26.
they married february 25th 1826 at the moravia home of abigail's brother who was a judge
they did not take a honeymoon and settled in east aurora new york where abigail continued to teach
until the birth of her first child in those days a woman could not be a teacher if she was pregnant
however abigail retained her lifelong love of learning she was even instrumental in helping
build the large personal library she and millard shared abigail and millard had two children
millard powers-fillmore was born in 1828 and mary abigail fillmore was born in 1832
as millard's career progressed the fillmore family gained more prosperity and millard eventually
bought them a large house in buffalo new york there abigail got to live in relative luxury which
was a sharp juxtaposition to the poverty in which she lived her childhood years she began to learn
how to be a society wife and then a political wife after millard was elected to congress she enjoyed
flower gardening during this time but as usual most of her spare time was spent with her first
love which was reading by 1847 their son was at college and their daughter was at boarding school
and abigail and millard moved to the state capitol at albany for a while by 1849 millard was the u.s
vice president and abigail moved to washington d.c as the second lady of the united states
she only spent a year and a half as second lady before president zachary taylor's death made her
first lady while abigail tried to plead delicate health in order to turn over most social duties
to her young daughter she was obliged to stand for long periods every friday night
when the white house hosted official receptions this was hard on her because she had a broken
ankle that had never properly healed when she moved into the white house
abigail was appalled that it lacked a library with a two thousand dollar appropriation from congress
she built one because of her the white house was outfitted with an impressive library where
books were placed that she devoted much time to choosing herself there was shakespeare books on
history geography and politics as well as her personal piano which she taught herself to play
abigail invited famous contemporary writers like william thackery washington irving and charles
dickens to meet with her in the white house's new library in doing so she created somewhat of
a literary salon atmosphere there and became known as the most intellectual of early first ladies
it is said that millard fillmore valued her opinion so much that he never made a decision
without consulting her contemporary sources say he asked her whether he should sign the controversial
fugitive slave act and she recommended he not do so telling him he would lose the nomination
to even make a try for a second term if he did so after much deliberation he signed the act
after all and did lose the nomination in the next election just as abigail predicted after leaving
the white house abigail and millard were excited about the things they were now free to do and
discussed traveling europe however after attending incoming president franklin pierce's inauguration
which was outdoors she became ill mildly at first but it progressed to bronchitis and then pneumonia
and she died at age 55 not quite a month after leaving the white house giving her the shortest
post-white house career of any first lady miller fillmore remarried five years
later to a wealthy widow and remained married to her until he died in 1874.
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