Number Thirteen

Do you know who the thirteenth president of the United States was? Well he was the last of the Whig Party and he was elected. He was Millard Fillmore and he became the 13th president upon the death of Zachary Taylor. Taylor died after consuming a huge amount of cherries and cold milk at a fund raiser for the Washington Monument and contracted a digestive ailment. Millard Fillmore took over the office of president on July 9, 1850. He was not re-elected. He was beaten by Franklin Pierce. Millard Fillmore was also the last of three members of the Whig Party to be president. The Whig Party basically fell apart due to the debate over slavery. After his term in office Millard Fillmore was very active in the Know Nothing Party.
Millard Fillmore was born in 1800 in Upstate New York to working class parents and was apprenticed to a cloth maker in Sparta, New York at age 14. He struggled to obtain and education and eventually got a job as a clerk for a lawyer. While he was working for the lawyer Fillmore studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1823. Fillmore's law practice was one of the most successful in Upstate New York. He was also one of the founders of University of Buffalo.
As a president he was not a very popular or successful president. He is rank as one of the 10 worst presidents. His term was rocked by the slavery issues of the day. It was during his term as president that California was admitted to the union and New Mexico and Utah were made territories. He appoint Brigham Young as territorial governor of Utah. Young named his new capital Fillmore in the county of Millard.
After his adminsitration Millard Fillmore returned to upstate New York and took the position of Chancellor of the University of Buffalo. He died in Buffalo on March 8, 1874