First Lady of the United States president's wife
Abigail was born in Stillwater, New York, 1798, in Saratoga County, New York. She was the daughter of the Reverend Lemuel Powers, a Baptist minister, and Abigail Newland-Powers, Abigail grew up in Moravia, New York, not far from the Fillmore farm. Her father died shortly after her birth.
Fillmore's mother ably educated Abigail and her brother beyond the usual frontier level with the help of her late husband's library.
In 1849, Abigail Fillmore came to Washington as wife of the Vice President; 16 months later, after Zachary Taylor's death at a height of sectional crisis, the Fillmores moved into the White House.
Even after the period of official mourning the social life of the Fillmore administration remained subdued. The First Lady presided with grace at state dinners and receptions; but a permanently injured ankle made her Friday-evening levees an ordeal--two hours of standing at her husband's side to greet the public. In any case, she preferred reading or music in private. Pleading her delicate health, she entrusted many routine social duties to her attractive daughter, "Abby." With a special appropriation from Congress, she spent contented hours selecting books for a White House library and arranging them in the oval room upstairs, where Abby had her piano, harp, and guitar. Here, wrote a friend, Mrs. Fillmore "could enjoy the music she so much loved, and the conversation of...cultivated society...."
13th President of the United States
