AN HOUR WITH PRESIDENT FILL

MORE AND HIS FRIENDS

At the annual meeting of the Buffalo Historical Society, Jan. 10, 1899, following the necessary business, an hour was devoted to the memory of Millard Fillmore. Some members spoke briefly; others who had known Mr. Fillmore, intimately, submitted reminiscences or sent letters. A portion of these offerings, deemed worthy of preservation, here follows:

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT LANGDON.

After speaking of various phases of the Historical Society's work and interests, Mr. Langdon said:

In the first Directory ever issued in the then village of Buffalo, dated 1828, a copy of which lies upon the table before you, under the head of "Aurora," appears the name "Millerd Filmore," both given and surnames misspelled. For nearly half a century that name continued, year after year, as that of a resident of Buffalo. Millard Fillmore came to Buffalo light of purse, but with a right goodly stock of brains. He came a lad, a student and teacher; he died full of years, having attained the highest place in the ambition of man. His political career is known to the world, approved by many, by many severely criticized. We have gathered tonight not wholly to review his public life, but principally as friends and neighbors to recall some reminiscences and incidents of his life as a private citizen.

Mr. Fillmore was a member of the Maryland Historical Society, which society has kindly sent us a photograph of the cast in its possession made from the marble bust by Bartholomew, in Florence, in the year 1856. The original we have been unable to find. He was also an honorary vice-president of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society for many years. His membership in these two societies may have been an inspiration, one of many, perhaps, that led to the organization of the Buffalo Historical Society in 1862, an incident in connection with which will be given by our secretary.

We celebrate tonight our thirty-seventh anniversary. Mr. Fillmore was one of this society's promoters, and its first president. It seems a grateful duty, as well as a pleasure, on our part to commemorate his memory tonight. His contemporaries are nearly all gone. We have attempted to crystallize some kindly and historic memories of him as a last tribute to one who was respected, regard

less of political differences, by all who were favored in knowing him-a few more days and all his acquaintances will be gone from us.

For want of time, we shall not be able to read all that his friends have sent us, but we will give you a few excerpts.

Mr. Fillmore's domestic life was deeply shadowed: the death of his first wife at Willard's Hotel, just after leaving the White House, was an awful blow to a most devoted husband. The death of his wife was followed quickly by the sudden, tragic death of his only daughter, Mary Abigail, a young lady of rare accomplishments, whose beauty of person is reflected by the pastel portrait and the exquisite daguerreotype we are enabled to show you tonight, by the kindness of companions of her youth. In passing, a word of her last illness may be of interest. With her close friend, Miss Scott, now Mrs. Lars G. Sellstedt, she had taken a lesson in German, and about two o'clock in the afternoon left her father's home on Franklin street to go to Aurora to help her grandparents about settling in the new home which her father had built for them in that village. Mr. Fillmore protested about her going by stage and told her to have her brother Powers drive out with her in the carriage. This she did not want to do because there would be no place in the new home where Powers could sleep. On that evening she was stricken with the dread disease of cholera; her father and her brother were summoned, but before they could reach her she became unconscious, and at eleven o'clock on the next morning she died. Miss Fillmore was an accomplished musician, playing skillfully both the piano and the harp; she was educated at the Normal School, and taught in one of the public schools after she was graduated.

Mr. Fillmore was married twice; he was survived by his widow and his son, Powers. We are fortunate in having portraits of Mr. Fillmore, of his wife, his son and daughter, and of his father, Nathaniel Fillmore, for your inspection tonight; we have also two busts, one by Mr. Hart and one by Mr. Selkirk, which have been loaned to the society by the Buffalo Library and the Fine Arts Academy. We show you fine portraits of the three members of the firm of Fillmore, Hall & Haven, whose standing as the foremost firm of lawyers was of wide reputation. As in life these men walked together, so in death their remains lie side by side in our sacred City of the Dead.

This beautiful desk which stands before me was formerly owned and used by Mr. Fillmore at his home on Niagara Square. We have learned from Michael Solomon of this city that he made for the late Abner Cutler the chair of white oak used by Mr. Fillmore in Washington while he was President. The upholstering of this chair was beautifully embroidered, the work of Mrs. Fillmore. The relics on exhibition in part are the property of this society and in part have been loaned by the friends of the Fillmore family for this occasion. To these friends our grateful thanks are due. The beautiful medallion of Mr. Fillmore, here shown, was made expressly for this occasion and presented to our society by Mr. A. A. Langenbahn.

I. Owned by Mrs. S. S. Jewett, and loaned to the Society for this occasion.

BIRTH OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Frank H. Severance said:

Some years ago I was making a Sunday drive around Grand Island with the Hon. Lewis F. Allen, when he said to me: "Did you ever hear how the Historical Society was started?"

Mr. Allen and I used to make very pleasant excursions together. Though more than half a century lay between us, in age, we had a common interest in the history of the Niagara frontier—that history which he knew so well; so large a part of which he was.

"Tell me of it," I said.

"I was coming up Court street one day," he continued, "when I met Orsamus H. Marshall. I knew him well-knew that he was one of the few men in Buffalo who gave any thought to the preservation of the records or relics of our history. Marshall, you know, was a scholar. Put him onto anything relating to our Indians, and off he'd go as long as he could follow the trail. He spoke of something that he wanted to get, or that had been destroyed, I don't remember now just what.

"Marshall,' I said, 'we ought to do something about these things. Somebody should take care of them.'

"It was a raw, windy day early in the Spring, along in March, 1862. He said, 'Come up in my office and we'll talk it over.'

"The result of that talk was that we got a few others interested and published a call for another meeting, to be held at Mr. Marshall's office. The rest of it," said Mr. Allen, "is matter of record. We named a committee to draw up a constitution and bylaws, which were submitted to a meeting of citizens held in the rooms of the old Medical Association on South Division street. Millard Fillmore was made chairman of that meeting, and a little later, at our first election, he was chosen the first president of the society."

The society's records show that the first meeting at which Mr. Fillmore presided was held on April 15, 1862. Mr. Allen was chairman of the earlier meeting, held at Mr. Marshall's office, and was the first vice-president of the society.

MR. FILLMORE'S VIEWS ON TEMPERANCE.

Dr. Albert H. Briggs said:

My only excuse for making any remarks on this occasion is the fact that from my earliest recollection I have known a Fillmore. And to know any of this remarkable family was to respect, honor and love them. In my childhood I knew and loved Rev. Glezen Fillmore. "Father Fillmore" we called him-a cousin of ex-President Millard Fillmore. Father Fillmore went to his reward years ago, but he has left his mark on all this part of our State. He will always be remembered as the pioneer of Methodism here.

The children of my father's household would sit for hours and listen to his stories of adventure and hardship while on his rounds as a "circuit preacher" of the M. E. Church. "His parish," he would say, "was all of New York State west of the Genesee river and a good part of Pennsylvania, as far south as Titusville and