Fillmore, Millard | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Fillmore's early life had been guided by good luck. The son of a poor farmer, Fillmore at age fourteen became an apprentice to a clothing maker. His teacher, Abigail Powers (1798–1853), whom he later married, persuaded him to aim higher, and a friendly county judge helped supervise his study of the law. In the 1820s, Fillmore helped organize a new political party, the Anti-Mason Party, which opposed the supposed political influence of the Masonic Lodge, a secret social organization whose members had included, among others, President George Washington (1732–1799; served 1789–97). (A political party is a group of people with similar ideas and goals who work together to elect like-minded individuals to public office.) At age twenty-eight, Fillmore was elected to the New York state legislature, where he served for three years.

The Anti-Masonic Party never attracted widespread support and soon dissolved. Most of its members, like Fillmore, joined the Whig Party instead. The Whigs were in favor of government policies that helped business owners and promoted the westward expansion of the United States during an era when the "frontier" was still in western Missouri. In 1832, Fillmore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from his home district in New York; he served for two years, decided not to run for reelection, then ran again and was elected a representative for three terms in a row.

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