January, 1874, was designated as the date of the meeting, but was afterward changed to April by Mr. Fillmore's request. Alas! ere the arrival of

"Well apparel'd April

That on the heel of limping winter treads,"

he was no longer among the living. After a brief illness, at ten minutes past eleven o'clock on Sunday evening, March the eighth, Millard Fillmore, thirteenth President of these United States,

He was gathered to his fathers at the ripe age of three-score and fourteen years, and died without the knowledge that his former partner, Judge Hall, with whom he had been so long and closely united in the bonds of friendship and in professional and public life, had also a few days previous rested from his labors and was then sleeping in that temple of silence where the ex-President now rests by his side.

I have thus run rapidly through the career of one whose

"Life was gentle and the elements

So mixed in him that nature might stand up
And say to all the world, This was a man!”

and I know not how I can more fittingly conclude this brief and
simple tribute to the memory of Millard Fillmore, than with the
words applied to another: "If it were becoming at this time and in
this assembly to address our departed friend as if in his presence, I
would say, 'Farewell, thou who hast entered into the rest prepared
from the foundation of the world for serene and gentle spirits like
thine.
Farewell, happy in thy life, happy in thy death, happier
in the reward to which that death was the assured passage. The
brightness of that enduring fame which thou hast won on earth is
but a shadowy symbol of the glory to which thou art admitted in
the world beyond the grave. Thy errand upon earth was an errand
of peace and good will to men, and thou art now in a region where
hatred and strife never enter and where the harmonious activity of
those who inhabit it acknowledges no impulse less noble or less pure
than that of love.""

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.