USA > New York > Genealogical and family history of central New York : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the building of a nation, Volume II > Part 57
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threat that the sloop and all on board would be sunk unless he complied, he concluded to sacrifice himself to save his companions, on a promise that he should be set at liberty in two months. He was firmly resolved how- ever that he never would sign articles on board the pirate. At the outset he was not pressed hard on this point, and was assigned to the helm of the ship, which relieved him from any piratical duty. At the expiration of the two months he demanded his release from Phillips, who promised on his honor that if Fillmore would stay three months longer he should be set at liberty. This promise was not kept, and his treatment thereafter was much worse. Gradually the number of pris- oners taken from different prizes increased. Among them were an American whom Fill- more had known at home, a ship's carpenter, named James Cheeseman; Captain Harridon, a young man of twenty-two, son of a Boston merchant ; and a Spanish Indian, all of whom, like Fillmore, refused to sign the pirate's ar- ticles. These five conspired to seize the ves- sel and effect their release. The pirate cap- tain, suspecting the design, killed the young American who was Fillmore's friend, and threatened Fillmore, even discharging a pistol point-blank at his breast, but happily it missed fire. The prisoners continued to plot, and their looked-for opportunity came about nine months after Fillmore had gone on board the pirate, when the crew, having taken a prize, engaged in a drunken carouse. The four pris- oners consulted together, but Harridon re- fused to join in their desperate venture, say- ing his spirit was broken and his courage gone as a result of the ill treatment he had received. This left only Fillmore, Cheeseman and the Spanish Indian to engage the entire crew, and they felt much doubt of the Indian, although, as the event proved, he carried out his part manfully. Fillmore contrived to burn the feet of two of the pirates while they lay drunk, so that they could do nothing. This left only four of the original gang, the re- mainder having joined by compulsion since Fillmore had been on board. The carpenter left some axes and hammers on deck where they would be handy for weapons. When the pirates came up next morning, Fillmore, Cheeseman and the Indian killed Phillips, his boatswain, master and quartermaster. Fill- more led the attack, personally killing two of the pirates, besides delivering the first blow
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at Phillips. The remainder of the crew sur- rendered and Fillmore and his companions took the vessel to Boston and delivered it to the authorities. Six of the pirate prisoners were executed. Fillmore, as a reward for his courage, was presented by the court with Phillips' gun, silver-hilted sword, silver shoe and knee buckles, a curious tobacco box, and two gold rings. Captain Fillmore's own nar- rative of this remarkable adventure was pub- lished by A. M. Clapp, at Aurora, New York, in 1837, and was long in the possession of his great-grandson, Millard Fillmore. It was re- published by the Buffalo Historical Society in 1907. Captain Fillmore removed from Bev- erly to Norwich (now Franklin) Connecticut, where he bought seventy acres of land in 1724. Here he joined the church in 1729 and lived many years. In May, 1750, he was com- missioned captain in the Second military com- pany of Norwich. He married (first) No- vember 28, 1724, Mary Spiller, of Ipswich ; (second) about 1734, Dorcas Day, of Pom- fret, who died March 16, 1759; (third) Mary Reach, a widow. He died in Norwich, Feb- ruary 22, 1777. Children by first wife: I John, married Leah -, and settled in Nova Scotia. 2. Abigail, married Nathaniel Kim- ball Jr. 3. Mary, born 1731; married John Taylor, and lived in Norwich. 4. Henry, bap- tized 1733; married Thankful Downer; emi- grated to New York. By second wife : 5. Dorcas, born February 13, 1735-6; married Abel Page ; lived in Haverhill, Massachusetts. 6. Jeremiah, born 1737; died 1741. 7. Mi- riam, born 1738; married Nathan Colgrove; settled in Middletown, Vermont. 8. Nathan- iel, mentioned below. 9. Comfort, born 1742; married, 1763, Zerviah Bosworth; lived in Norwich. 10. Amaziah, born 1743; joined the expedition against Havana in 1762, and died there of fever. II. Mimee, born January 3, 1745-6; married Nathan Dillings. 12. Lydia, born 1747; married Jacob Pember; lived in Norwich. 13. Luther, born January 14, 1749- 50 ; married Eunice -; emigrated to Mid- dletown, Vermont. 14. Calvin, born 1752; died 1753. 15. Deborah, born 1755. 16. De- liverance, born 1757.
(III) Nathaniel, son of John (2) and Dor- cas (Day) Fillmore, was born March 20, 1739. In early manhood he removed to Ben- nington, Vermont, then called the Hampshire Grant, where he resided the remainder of his life. He inherited the sword which his father
won from the pirate Phillips, and used it va- liantly in both the French and the revolution- ary wars. During the French war he was wounded and left in the woods, where he sub- sisted for nearly a week on a few kernels of corn and upon his shoes and a part of his blanket which he roasted and ate. He was finally discovered and rescued. He was a lieu- tenant under Stark at the battle of Benning- ton, August 16, 1777. He married, October 20, 1767, Hepzibah Wood. He died at Ben- nington in 1814. Children : Simeon; Na- thaniel, mentioned below; Philippa, born March 22, 1773; Calvin, below; Elijah, born April 8, 1778; Darius, born September 28, 1781.
(IV) Nathaniel (2), son of Nathaniel (I) and Hepsibah (Wood) Fillmore, was born in Bennington, April 19, 1771. He removed to Locke, Cayuga county, New York, thence to Sempronius, in the same county, and finally to Aurora (now East Aurora), Erie county. He was a farmer, and for many years a civil magistrate. He married (first) Phoebe, daughter of Dr. Abiathar Millard, of Ben- nington, who died May 2, 1831; (second) Eunice Love, widow. He died in East Au- rora, March 28, 1863. Children, all by first wife: I. Olive Armstrong, born December 16, 1797; married, March 7, 1816, Henry S. Johnson, of Sempronius, farmer; removed to Dexter, Michigan ; five children. 2. Millard, mentioned below. 3. Cyrus, born December 22, 1801 ; married, May 19, 1825, Laura Mo- rey, of Holland, New York; removed to Greenfield, Indiana; farmer; six children. 4. Almon Hopkins, born April 13, 1806; stu- dent at law; died January 17, 1830. 5. Cal- vin Turner, born July 9, 1810; married, 1830, Miranda Waldo; lived in Scio, Michigan ; car- penter. 6. Julia, born August 29, 1812; mar- ried, October 27, 1840, A. C. Harris, lawyer ; removed to Toledo, Ohio. 7. Darius Ingra- ham, born November 16, 1814; student at law ; died in East Aurora, March 9, 1837. 8. Charles De Witt, born September 23, 1817; married, February II, 1840, Julia Etta Green : mason ; removed to St. Paul, Minnesota ; died July 27, 1854. 9. Phoebe Maria, born No- vember 23, 1819.
(V) Millard, son of Nathaniel (2) and Phoebe (Millard) Fillmore, was born in Locke, New York, January 7, 1800. Cayuga county was then a western wilderness, and the schools of the region were very poor. Mr.
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Fillmore says in an autobiographical sketch of his early life that until he was ten years of age he never had seen a dictionary. Though he was drilled thoroughly in Webster's spell- ing book, he had little idea of the meaning of the words he learned. At about that age his services on his father's farm became too valuable to admit of his going to school ex- cept for two or three months during the win- ter. He never saw a map or an atlas until he was nineteen years old. His father occu- pied a leased farm, having lost his own through a defective title, and this gave him a prejudice against farming which decided him to have his sons taught trades. Millard, at fifteen, after being dissuaded from a boy- ish ambition to become a soldier, was sent to learn the trade of wool carding and cloth dressing with Benjamin Hungerford, of Sparta, Livingston county. He made the journey of one hundred miles mostly on foot. He became dissatisfied with his employer be- cause he was kept at cutting wool and simi- lar work, instead of being taught the trade. Mr. Hungerford threatened to chastise him, and young Millard replied by menacing the man with his axe. After about three months he returned to his home. He was next ap- prenticed to Zaccheus Cheney and Alvan Kel- logg, who carried on the business of carding and cloth-dressing at Newhope, near his father's home. This trade occupied his time from June until about the middle of Decem- ber, for which he received $50 a year. He had leisure during the winter to continue his studies. His father's library consisted only of the Bible, a hymn book and an almanac, with an occasional weekly newspaper, but Mil- lard gained access to a small circulating li- brary which considerably broadened his field of study. By the time he was eighteen he had begun to teach a country school during the winter season. In May, 1818, he shoul- dered his knapsack and made a journey to Buffalo to visit friends. At that time he could and did walk forty miles in a day. About this time his father removed to Mont- ville, Cayuga county, where Judge Walter Wood was a leading citizen. Without Mil- lard's knowledge, his father made arrange- ments with Judge Wood to receive the young man into his office as a student. Millard was so overjoyed when his mother told him the news that he broke down and cried. He was set to reading "Blackstone," to which he
offered some objection because he could not see why he should study the laws of England instead of these of New York. Nevertheless, he made such progress that when the time came to return to his apprenticeship, the Judge, who was a Friend, said to him: "If thee has an ambition for distinction, and can sacrifice everything else to success, the law is the road that leads to honors; and if thee can get rid of thy engagement to serve as an ap- prentice, I would advise thee to come back again and study law." Millard replied that he had no means of paying his way, where- upon the Judge offered to give him some em- ployment and to lend him such necessary money as he could not earn during his clerk- ship. Accordingly he made an arrangement with his employers to buy the remainder of his time for $30, and the following winter he resumed his law studies, teaching school at the same time. Within two years, however, he quarreled with Judge Wood because the Judge objected to his undertaking pettifog- ging practice before justices of the peace. Millard pleaded his poverty, but the Judge was inexorable, declaring he must promise not to take any more pettifogging cases or they must separate. Suspecting, perhaps un- justly, that Judge Wood was more anxious to keep him in a state of dependence to look after his tenants than to make a lawyer of him, Millard determined to leave. He gave the Judge his note for $65 which had been advanced to him, afterward paying it with interest. This was the only help he ever re- ceived in obtaining his profession. His father had then removed to Aurora, Erie county. Thither Millard went and again to teach school and to practice in justice's courts. In the spring of 1822 he removed to Buffalo, where he became a clerk in the office of Asa Rice and Joseph Clary. He continued to teach school and to carry on a pettifogging practice to support himself, and in 1823, by the especial solicitation of some older mem- bers of the bar, he was formally admitted. He opened his first office in East Aurora, where he practiced until May, 1830, when he removed to Buffalo, forming a partnership with Joseph Clary. He was admitted as an attorney in the supreme court in 1827 and as counselor in 1829. The partnership with Mr. Clary was soon succeeded by the firm of Fill- more, Hall & Haven (Nathan K. Hall and Solomon G. Haven). This firm continued
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until 1847, and became the most prominent in western New York.
Mr. Fillmore's political career began with the birth of the Whig party and ended with its extinction. He was elected to the assem- bly as a Whig in 1828, and continued to serve in the sessions of 1830 and 1831. Most of his legislative work was local, but he was chiefly responsible for one important law of general interest-an act abolishing imprison- ment for debt. He was one of a committee of eighteen citizens who drew up the first charter for the city of Buffalo, which was incorporated in 1832. In the fall of that year he was elected to congress. After serving through the Twenty-third Congress he retired for a term, but was re-elected in 1836 to the Twenty-fifth Congress, and continued to serve through the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-sev- enth. Until the Twenty-seventh Congress he was one of the minority party. He took sufficient part in the debates, however, to gain for himself a position of leadership. He was proposed as a minority candidate for speaker of the Twenty-sixth Congress, and when the Whigs came into power in the Twenty-sev- enth Congress he was made chairman of the ways and means committee. The great act of this session, for which Mr. Fillmore was chiefly responsible, was the tariff of 1842. The national treasury was virtually bankrupt, and the tariff was in the nature of an emer- gency measure. Nevertheless, it was vetoed by the president because of a duty on tea and coffee. A subsequent bill became a law with- out these duties. Mr. Fillmore retired from congress by his own wish after the end of this session. As early as 1836 Mr. Fillmore was a delegate to the Whig state convention, and he was again a delegate in 1838, when William H. Seward was nominated for gov- ernor. In 1842 he was proposed as a suitable candidate for vice-president on the ticket when Henry Clay was expected to head two years later. The choice, however, fell upon Theo- dore Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey. Mr. Fillmore was made his party's nominee for governor. He conducted an energetic canvass, but was defeated by Silas Wright, the vote being 231,057 for Mr. Fillmore to 241,090 for Mr. Wright. In 1846 his name was again put before the state convention and, although it was known that he would not accept, he re- ceived 65 votes to 44 for John Young. He declined and Mr. Young was nominated and
elected. The following year he consented to accept the nomination for state comptroller and was elected. In his report for 1849 he suggested the organization of national banks with currency secured by deposits of national bonds-the system which was adopted during the civil war and is still in force. The Whig national convention at Philadelphia, on June 9, 1848, after naming General Zachary Taylor for president, nominated Mr. Fillmore on the second ballot for vice-president. He was elected, and inaugurated on March 5, 1849. He presided over the senate during the excit- ing controversy over Clay's omnibus bill, and also distinguished himself by enforcing order, contrary to precedents, during a slavery de- bate. On July 9, 1850, President Taylor died, and on the following day Mr. Fillmore took the oath of office as president. His adminis- tration is rather national than personal history. His cabinet included Daniel Webster, secre- tary of state; Thomas Corwin, secretary of the treasury; Alexander H. H. Stuart, secre- tary of the interior; John J. Crittenden, at- torney-general; Nathan K. Hall, of Buffalo, his former law partner, postmaster-general, and later Edward Everett. Mr. Fillmore's temper was conciliatory and his guide was the written law of the constitution, rather than the higher law of the anti-slavery men. This explains his approval of the celebrated com- promise measures of 1850, including the fugi- tive slave law, which cost him the support of most of his party in the North. He sought a peaceful solution of the great controversy over slavery. His last message to congress, as originally written, contained a plan for the colonization of negroes in Africa, similar to the one later favored by Mr. Lincoln. By advice of his cabinet it was suppressed, but Mr. Fillmore was personally proud of it. He was also much criticised for the appointment of Brigham Young as governor of Utah, but on that point it should be said that the doc- trine of polygamy had not then been declared by the Mormon church. The majority in con- gress was hostile to him throughout his ad- ministration, but the country, nevertheless, owes him thanks for a number of acts of great importance. Chief of these was the send- ing of Commodore Perry to Japan and the opening of that country to trade. He also sent the Lynch expedition to Africa. the Ring- gold expedition to China, and the Herndon and Gibbon expedition up the Amazon. The
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Lopez insurrection in Cuba called for rigid measures to suppress filibustering, and the visit of Kossuth to this country required a declaration against interference with foreign affairs, despite the President's personal sym- pathy with the Hungarion patriot. Postal rates were lowered and the capitol was en- larged. Mr. Fillmore's estrangement from his former friend, Thurlow Weed, was an- other famous incident. He was a candidate for renomination at the Whig national con- vention in 1852, but could command only twenty votes from the free states, although his policies were indorsed by a vote of 227 to 60. After his retirement he made a tour through the south, speaking frequently in the hopes of calming the political animosity then raging. Later, in 1855-6, he made a tour of Europe. It was while he was abroad in 1856 that he was nominated again for president by the American party, to which many of the former Whigs had gone at that time. The remnants of the Whig party met at Baltimore in September and indorsed Mr. Fillmore. He received, however, only the eight electoral votes of the state of Maryland. Returning to Buffalo, he lived in the Fillmore mansion, now the Castle Inn, on Niagara Square. His lack of sympathy with the northern cause sub- jected him to some unpleasant experience in the early stages of the civil war. Neverthe- less, he entertained President Lincoln at his house during Mr. Lincoln's visit to Buffalo in 1861, and he headed the citizens' commit- tee which met Mr. Lincoln's funeral train in 1865. He was chosen as the first captain of the Union Continentals, an organization of well-known Buffalo men whose chief func- tion was to arouse enthusiasm, encourage re- cruiting and act as an escort for departing volunteers. Mr. Fillmore personally marched in full uniform with this organization. He was also chairman of the committee of public safety. He was one of the founders of the Buffalo General Hospital and of the Buffalo Historical Society, chancellor of the Univer- sity of Buffalo, and aided in establishing the Fine Arts Academy and the Society of Na- tural Sciences.
He married (first) February 5, 1826, Abi- gail, daughter of Lemuel and Abigail (New- land) Powers, born in Stillwater, New York, March. 1789. Her father was a Baptist clergyman at Moravia, New York, at the time of the marriage. Ill health and mourning for
a deceased sister prevented her from taking a very active part in social affairs during her husband's administration, and soon after the close of his term she died at the City Hotel ( willard's) in Washington, March 30, 1853. She was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo. For his second wife Mr. Fillmore married, February 10, 1858, at Albany, New York, Caroline C. McIntosh, widow, daughter ot Charles and Tempe ( Blachly ) Carmichael of Morristown, New Jersey. She died August II, 1881. Mr. Fillmore.suffered a stroke of paralysis February 13, 1874, and died on March 8th following. He was buried in For- est Lawn Cemetery. Children, by first wife : I. Millard Powers, mentioned below. 2. Mary Abigail, born in Buffalo, March 27, 1832; she was educated in the Buffalo Normal School, and taught for a time in one of the public schools. She was a talented musician, playing the harp and the piano, and was very attract- ive. She was a great social favorite at the White House during her father's administra- tion. She started on a visit to East Aurora on the morning of July 26, 1854, and died the next day of cholera, aged 22.
(VI) Millard rowers, son of Millard and Abigail ( Powers) Fillmore, was born in East Aurora, April 25, 1828. He became a law- yer, and served as his father's private secre- tary during Mr. Fillmore's term as president. He remained a bachelor, making his home in Buffalo, and died November 15, 1889.
(IV) Simeon, son of Nathaniel (I) and Hepzibah (Wood) Fillmore, was born in Ben- nington, Vermont, December 13, 1768. He removed to Paris (now Kirkland) New York, and later to Clarence, Erie county. He mar- ried (first) Susanna Glezen, (second) Lucy Pelton. Children by first wife: I. Gle- zen, born 1789; married, September 20, 1809, Levina Atwill; became a Methodist clergyman, and later presiding elder of the Niagara district; lived at Clarence, Erie county, and died there January 26, 1875 ; his wife died September 3, 1893, at the age of 106, the oldest resident of Erie county. 2. Sherlock, born 1793; married (first) 1817, Lois Slosson, who died in 1844; (second) Orra Hamlin; was a lieutenant and captain in the Thirteenth Regiment of Infantry during the war of 1812; lived at Clarence as a farmer. 3. Hiram, born 1801 : married, 1838, Julia Webster, widow ; lived in Michigan. 4. Asahel Norton, born 1807: married (first)
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Lydia A. Webster, of Buffalo, who died in 1836; (second) 1837, Lovina F. Atwill; be- came a Methodist clergyman, and presiding elder of the Seneca Lake district; lived at Waterloo, Seneca county. 5. Harriet, born 18II ; married, 1827, John Conly.
(IV) Calvin, son of Nathaniel (1) and Hepzibah (Wood) Fillmore, was born in Bennington, Vermont, April 30, 1775. He removed to Cayuga county, New York, with his brother Nathaniel (2) and later to East Aurora. In the war of 1812 he was made a captain in the Thirteenth Regiment of Infan- try and was engaged in several actions on the Niagara frontier, notably one near Fort George, in which he was successful and took some prisoners. He was promoted to major and to lieutenant colonel of the same regiment, and was in command during the latter part of the war. He became coroner of Erie county and a deputy United States marshal, and in 1824 was elected to the assembly. He mar- ried, December 12, 1797, Jerusha Turner, who died in East Aurora, January 4, 1852. Cal- vin Fillmore died in East Aurora, October 22, 1865.
BAILEY This family, originally from England, settled in Connecticut where the name is yet common. The American ancestor came prior to the revolution. Benjamin, of the third genera- tion, settled in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, while Milton, of the fourth, founded the pres- ent family in Jamestown, New York. The record made by the family is an enviable one and continues so up to the present day.
(I) Jeremiah Bailey was born in England and came to the American colonies early in the eighteenth century, being then a young man. He settled in the state of Connecticut, where he married and had issue. Little more can be told of him.
(II) Jeremiah (2), son of Jeremiah (1) Bailey, was born in Preston, Connecticut, about 1740. He was a shoemaker by trade, carrying on his business for many years in Preston. He was a man of great industry and strict integrity in all his business deal- ings. Intellectually he was far above the av- erage man of his day but not successful in accumulating property. He married a lady of education, formerly a school teacher, who bore a most enviable reputation. Children : I. Samuel, born 1764, died at the age of eighty-
three years; married Cynthia Meach. 2. Asa, born 1767; was a seafaring man, mate of a merchant vessel; he was lost at sea leaving a widow and one son, Erastus, who married and settled in the west. 3. Benjamin, of whom further. 4. Benajah, born 1770; was a practicing physician of northern New York or Canada. 5. Elizabeth, the only daughter, was born 1780; she married John Brigden and lived in Norwich, Connecticut ; children : Benajah, Cynthia, George P., Sally M.
(III) Benjamin, third son of Jeremiah (2) Bailey, was born at Preston, Connecticut, No- vember 7, 1768, died May 2, 1858. With lim- ited opportunities and early thrown upon his own resources, he yet succeeded in obtaining a good education, giving much attention to music, both vocal and instrumental. He was fond of his books and a student all his life. At various times he taught school and was also a leader and teacher of ordinary church music. By trade he was a tanner and cur- rier, also learning his father's trade of shoe- maker. He carried on business in Norwich, Connecticut, until 1804, when he moved with his family to the Wyoming Valley of Penn- sylvania, settling in the township of Wilkes- Barre on a tract of twelve acres lying two and one-half miles north of the court house in the city of Wilkes-Barre. As he prospered additional lands were purchased until he owned a valuable property on which he erected a commodious residence. Here he engaged in the manufacture of leather and at times (during the winter season) taught in the vil- lage school. Here he passed his remaining years, honored and respected by all. He was elected treasurer of Luzerne county, Pennsyl- vania, handling a large amount of public money, all of which was faithfully accounted for. The site of his farm is now covered by a thriving, incorporated borough, while un- derneath a rich vein of anthracite coal has brought great wealth to his successors in own- ership, a deposit one hundred feet thick (of which he was totally unaware) underlying the entire farm. He was a member of the Bap- tist church in good standing for over fifty years preceding his death. His home, near Wilkes-Barre, was always a home for minis- ters of that church, nor was the latch string drawn in upon the approach of ministers of other evangelical churches. It was his regu- lar practice to give personal attention to see- ing that the house of worship was in com-
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