Home › #American-history › HONORING MILLARD FILLMORE

HONORING MILLARD FILLMORE

By on • ( 8 )

Monday, February 16th was President’s Day. It used to be Lincoln’s Birthday. Yesterday used to be Washington’s Birthday. It was a separate holiday honoring the “father of our country.”

Garry was waxing nostalgic for the good old days. When George and Abe had their own special days. Modern times are egalitarian. Now, we honor all presidents equally. We know this because they all share a single holiday — President’s Day.

“Poor George and Abe,” opined Garry, “They lost their days. Now we honor William Henry Harrison, Millard Fillmore, Grover Cleveland, Zachery Taylor …” Then he asked me what Tyler’s first name was. And by any chance, did I know when Martin Van Buren was president.

Millard Fillmore

Millard Fillmore – in urgent need of a good haircut

I didn’t remember Tyler’s first name, so I looked him up. Turns out, he was John Tyler. He got to be president when W.H. Harrison died after one month in office because he got pneumonia standing around in the rain on inauguration day. Which is what my mother always warned me about. Not becoming president, but standing around in the cold and rain, catching pneumonia.

When I was a kid, I had this book called 33 Roads To The Whitehouse. Which means there have been 10 presidents since I was a kid. I read the book a bunch of times. Used to know all about each president up to and including Dwight D. Eisenhower. Which was when the book ended.

William Henry Harrison - Noteworthy serving the shortest term as U.S. president

William Henry Harrison – Noteworthy for being the president who served the shortest term as U.S. President

Because of that book, I knew Martin Van Buren followed Andrew Johnson. Who succeeded Abraham Lincoln after he was assassinated. In order, it was Lincoln, Johnson, Van Buren, William Henry Harrison (as opposed to Benjamin Harrison), who died after 30 days in office. John Tyler was Harrison’s VP, which is how he got into office. Got that? There will be a short quiz at the end of the period.

All presidents are the same in the eyes of our government, or at least the part of our government that decides on which holidays we get time off from work. Thus we honor, without discrimination, Washington, Lincoln, Harding, Taylor, and the inimitable Millard Fillmore. Even if they did nothing in office. I know for sure Harrison didn’t do anything in office, except die. He wasn’t in office long enough to do anything else.

If you are curious, Wikipedia has a pretty good article titled “List of Presidents of the United States.” It includes lots of presidential trivia. I love historical trivia. It’s those little twists and turns which change destiny.

Maybe next year I’ll buy a car. That’s what real, red-blooded Americans do on President’s Day. And, as everyone knows, I’m a traditionalist.

‹
›

Categories: #American-history, Anecdote, History, Holidays, Humor

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

8 replies

  1. Garry Armstrong
    02/23/2015 • 11:16

    Right on! Let’s have a Millard Fillmore holiday. We’ll have the first ceremony in San Francisco.

    Like

  2. Rick
    02/23/2015 • 11:06

    I tell my students that, whether we like them or not, all presidents make good decisions and bad decisions. They are human, so that is the only thing they can do. Of course, William Henry Harrison was not around long enough to do either one.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      02/23/2015 • 11:15

      We do seem to have had a bunch of presidents around this period who were so lacking in distinction they achieved obscurity while still in office. However, William Henry Harrison holds a special place in my heart, standing in the cold and rain without so much as an overcoat or a hat. My mother warned me. Apparently, he didn’t have a mother.

      Like

  3. trentpmcd
    02/23/2015 • 06:51

    At some point in time the government set the number of official federal holidays. Don’t want the fed workers to have to much time off, now do we? So when they made Martin Luther King Day a federal holiday something had to go to keep the numbers and not give the fed workers a ton of winter holidays (Christmas, New Years, Lincoln’s Birthday, Washington’s Birthday and then comes MLK Day, all within 2 months!) So it became Presidents Day and so even WH Harrison now has his day in the sun.

    Like