The First Ladies of the United States - Abigail Powers Fillmore

United States Embassy Stockholm
The First Ladies of the United States of America
Abigail Powers Fillmore
1798-1853
[Millard Fillmore]

November 2001

Biography: First of First Ladies to hold a job after marriage, Abigail Fillmore was helping her husband's career. She was also revealing her most striking personal characteristic: eagerness to learn and pleasure in teaching others.

She was born in Saratoga County, New York, in 1798, while it was still on the fringe of civilization. Her father, a locally prominent Baptist preacher named Lemuel Powers, died shortly thereafter. Courageously, her mother moved on 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 husband's library.

Shared eagerness for schooling formed a bond when Abigail Powers at 21 met Millard Fillmore at 19, both students at a recently opened academy in the village of New Hope. Although she soon became young Fillmore's inspiration, his struggle to make his way as a lawyer was so long and ill paid that they were not married until February 1826. She even resumed teaching school after the marriage. And then her only son, Millard Powers, was born in 1828.

Despite chronic poor health, Mrs. Fillmore stayed near her husband through the outdoor ceremonies of President Pierce's inauguration while a raw northeast wind whipped snow over the crowd. Returning chilled to the Willard Hotel, she developed pneumonia; she died there on March 30, 1853. The House of Representatives and the Senate adjourned, and public offices closed in respect, as her family took her body home to Buffalo for burial.

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Last Updated: Monday January 24 2005

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Embassy of the United States of America
Dag Hammarskjölds Väg 31, SE-115 89 Stockholm

Home | U.S. First Ladies
Public Affairs | US Mission | Commercial Service | Agricultural Service
Consular Information | Fulbright | U.S. State Department | Defense Attache
StockholmWeb@state.gov