First Ladies of the United States: Abigail Fillmore

Abigail Powers was born in Stillwater, New York, on March 17, 1798, the youngest of seven children of Lemuel and Abigail Newland Powers. When she was two, her father died, and her mother moved the family to the Finger Lakes region of New York where other relatives were settling. Young Abigail was taught to read by her mother and educated herself by reading her father's library. When she was 16, she began to work as a teacher at the New Hope Academy. She met Millard Fillmore three years later, and for a brief time, he was her student; he later became her colleague as they both taught at the academy. Abigail and Millard were engaged in 1819, but her family, who objected to her marrying beneath her social position, kept them apart for the better part of seven years. Eventually, however, they married on February 5, 1826, and settled in East Aurora, New York, where she continued teaching while he practiced law. In 1828, their first child, Millard Powers Fillmore, was born, and Millard Sr. was elected to the state legislature. Leaving Abigail, he went alone to Albany...

From 1849 to 1857, three very different women from separate regions of the country served successively as first lady during the presidential administrations of their husbands. Margaret Mackall Smith Taylor (1788–1852) was the wife of career soldier and Louisiana plantation owner Zachary Taylor (1784–1850), who died just sixteen months after taking office. Abigail Powers Fillmore (1798–1853), a former schoolteacher, was married to New York lawyer and former Congressman Millard Fillmore (1800–1874), Taylor's vice president and successor. Jane Means Appleton Pierce (1806–1863), a New Hampshire gentlewoman, was wedded to attorney and former US Senator Franklin Pierce (1804–1869), who served one full term as president...