MILLARD FILLMORE
1850 - 1853
Arizona Timeline
1850 - Compromise of 1850 allows for the admittance into the Union of territories acquired from Mexico as non- slave states. ( This included present day
New Mexico and Arizona)
1852 - Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves, one of the first U. S. Topographical Engineers, and a party explored the Kingman area on a survey of the 35th parallel
route across Arizona. In the same year, Americans began navigating the Colorado by steam boat.
Millard Fillmore was born in
1800 in Cayuga County, New
York. He practiced law in New
York, and entered politics with
the Anti- Masonic party, then
followed party boss Thurlow
Weed into the Whig party. He
was first married to Abigail
Powers, who died in 1853, and in
1858 married Caroline
McIntosh.
Abigail Powers Fillmore was
born in Saratoga County, New
York, in 1798. She shared an
eagerness for schooling with
Millard Fillmore, whom she met
in 1819 in New York. They were
married in 1826, and had one son.
President Millard Fillmore served in the House of Representatives and had a leading role in writing the tariff of 1842. He became New York state
comptroller in 1848, after he was defeated for governor of New York in 1844. He was elected Zachary Taylor's vice president in 1848, and became
president on Taylor's death in 1850 and served until 1853. In 1856 he was defeated in his run for president as the candidate of the Know- Nothing Party,
seeking to unite the country against foreigners. He opposed Lincoln during the Civil War. Fillmore died in 1874 in Buffalo, New York.
Although Abigail Fillmore had a reputation for erudition and wit, when Millard was elected she followed the example of other First Ladies, turning to her
eighteen- year- old daughter, Mary, as her substitute on official occasions. It was said that Millard never took an important step without Abigail's advice,
but she had little interest in the social role of a president's wife. She was a notable reader and established a White House library. Abigail died in 1853,
not long after leaving the White House.
Mohave Museum - U.S. Presidents and the History of Arizona
