13th President of the United States Millard Fillmore was born on January 7, 1800 in Summerhill, New York. The son of Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard (hence the name), Fillmore was the eldest son of nine children, eclipsed in age only by his sister. Fillmore was descended from Scottish Presbyterians.

At any early age – fourteen, to be exact - Fillmore’s father apprenticed him to a cloth maker in New York State. His master proved rather brutal and Fillmore left after only four months, only to take up a similar apprenticeship at New Hope soon after. While apprenticed he did what he could to get an education at New Hope Academy in 1819, and within the same year he became a clerk for a judge in Montville. This same judge would teach Fillmore the ways of the law.

After studying for several years Fillmore married Abigail Powers (with whom he would have two children) and left his apprenticeship. He moved to Buffalo and continued studying, and by 1823 he was admitted to the bar, creating his own practice in the same year. By 1834 he’d formed a partnership firm which became quite lucrative.

In 1828 Fillmore found himself elected to the State Assembly, on which he would serve one two-year term. In 1832 he was elected as a Whig to the 23rd Congress, and would continue to serve several terms until finally declining re-election in 1842.

In 1846 Fillmore established the University of Buffalo, which would later become the State University of New York at Buffalo (still in existence today). In that same year he served in the New York militia during the Mexican War, and would continue to serve in the militia during the later Civil War.

The 1848 Whig convention saw General Zachary Taylor put up for the spot of presidential candidate, upsetting a large segment of the Whig party. Fillmore was nominated as Vice President to provide balance. The two did not agree on slave policy: while Taylor opposed slavery in newly captured territory in the south of the United States, Fillmore thought introduction of slavery a necessary evil in keeping the peace. Taylor won and became president in 1848.

In 1850, however, Taylor suddenly died, and Fillmore was left to assume the presidency. He was left to deal with a cabinet riddled with scandal and dealt more with keeping his party unified than anything else. He was also faced with keeping the Union together in the face of slave-related pressure, and he eventually saw the passage of the Compromise of 1850, which had California join the Union. Ironically his moves to save the Union splintered the Whigs even more. Having lost the support of much of his party, Fillmore failed to receive a nomination for re-election, and left the presidency in 1852.

After the end of his presidency Fillmore soon found himself without a party. The Whigs fell apart and disappeared as a political force in 1855, and Fillmore joined the American Party. He ran as the presidential candidate in 1856 and, despite losing, managed an impressive showing for his third-party platform.

After his first wife died, Fillmore remarried with a wealthy widow in 1858. Throughout the American Civil War he opposed Abraham Lincoln’s actions consistently yet nevertheless commanded a corps of home guards.

Fillmore would die on March 8, 1874, having suffered a stroke not long before. He was 74.