Final President, For Now

This happened on May 19, 2025

 Went to Forest Lawn, Buffalo and found the grave of Millard Fillmore.  Old, old cemetery.   Local group posted the US flag.   Forest Lawn is also home to a herd of deer, who were peacefully grazing among the grave stones.   They watched me carefully but were not skittish.

Drove down to East Aurora, south of Buffalo to visit the Millard Fillmore house.   He and his wife lived here 1826 - 30, before he was president.   The house has been moved since he lived here.   There have been 4 owners, including Millard, and the Price family of Fisher-Price fame.  Cathy was our primary tour guide.   The house is currently owned by the local historical society.   Authentic family artifacts are marked with little cards.   

The campaign posters are original, one done by Currier of Currier and Ives fame.   

Fillmore was Zachary Taylor's vice president, and assumed office when Taylor died in DC.  President Fillmore moved to a house in Buffalo when his term ended.   His party did not renominate him.  His most significant work may have been the Compromise of 1850, which the Whigs held against him.  Also, his wife died right after he left office.   He later remarried in Buffalo.

Me and my bud are just chilling in the garden!

From East Aurora, I drove up to Buffalo, to the Teddy Roosevelt Inauguration site.   A friend had offered him a place to stay between downtown, and the Buffalo Exhibition.   When McKinley died, several days after being shot in Buffalo, Roosevelt took the oath of office in the library of the house.   He composed several letters there, including a heartfelt letter that he tossed the first draft into the trash.   Someone retrieved the rough draft and preserved it.   The final draft said what he wanted to say about the tragedy.

                                           The room where he took the oath of office

                                          The very desk where he composed his declaration of Day of Mourning, and a personal letter to Mrs. McKinley.

I was much more impressed by this site than I expected to be.    This was but one small moment in history, but the National Park Service has presented it very well, and tied it all into the times.  This was a worthwhile visit.

Presidential trivia.   The oath of office has only been administered outside Washington DC a few times.  I have stood in the room where it happened (but not when it happened), for two of them  Calvin Coolidge in Plymouth Notch, and Roosevelt in Buffalo.   George Washington was sworn in in New York and we all remember where LBJ took the oath.   And I think that was it, but I may be wrong.

So, I gonna say I'm done with presidents, until Obama opens his massive center next year (maybe) and North Dakota finishes the Theodore Roosevelt Museum and Library sometime next year.   That one should be interesting as he was not a fan of Native Americans and the center is being built on or near tribal lands!   The tribes have been given equal time at the exhibits.  Could be interesting.