Soon after Mrs. Filley removed to her country home in North Haverhill, N. H. Upon her uncle's death, in 1880, she bought his large stork farm, which she has since conducted. It was a dairy farm, and
MARY A. POWERS FILLEY.
though entirely new work to her, she learned the process of butter-making, found a market in Boston for her butter and made one year as much as 4,000 pounds. In connection with the dairy work she continued to raise a fine grade of Jersey stock. Finding the work too great a tax upon her strength, she sold the greater portion of her stock and turned the farm into a hay farm. While raising stock, her attention was called to the fact that the average man is cruel to animals, and it has been one of her special points to teach by precept and example the good effects of kindness to dumb animals.
Her interest in all reforms has been active. From her small community she has sent long petitions to Congress for equal suffrage. She has drawn lecturers into the village, and in many ways made the moral atmosphere of those around her better for
her having lived among them.
FILLMORE, Mrs. Abigail Powers, wife of President Fillmore, born in Stillwater, Saratoga county, N. V., in March, 1798. Her father was Rev. Lemuel Powers, a well-known Baptist clergyman, a man of Massachusetts ancestry. He died in 1799, and the widow was left in straitened circumstances. In 1809 she removed to Central New York, where she made her home with her brother in Cayuga county. Abigail was a brilliant girl, and soon gained enough education to enable her to teach school. She taught and studied diligently, and acquired a remarkably wide and deep education. While living in Cayuga county she became acquainted with Millard Fillmore, then a
youth " bound out " to learn the trade of a clothier and fuller, but who was devoting every spare moment to books. He abandoned the trade to study law, and removed to Erie county to practice. In February, 1S26. they were married in Moravia, N. Y. Mrs. Fillmore took an active interest in her husband's political and professional career. In 1828 he was elected to the State Legislature, and his success was largely due to the assistance of his wife. They were poor, but they made poverty respectable by their dignity and honesty. After serving three years in the State Legislature, Mr. Fillmore was elected to Congress. In 1830 they settled in Buffalo, N. Y., where prosperity smiled upon them. When her husband became President of the United States, she presided over the White House, but she had only recently been bereaved by the death of her sister, and she shrank from the social duties involved. Her daughter, Miss Mary Abigail Fillmore,
relieved the mother of the onerous duties attached to her position. Under their regime the White House became a center of literary, artistic, musical and social attractions somewhat unusual. Mrs.
Fillmore died in Washington, 30th March, 1853.
FINLEY, Miss Martha, author, born in Chillicothe, Ohio, 26th April, 1828. She has lived many years in Maryland. Her father. Dr. James B Finley, was the oldest son of General Samuel Finley, a Revolutionary officer, major in the Virginia line of cavalry, afterward general of militia in Ohio, and of Mary Brown, daughter of one of Pennsylvania's early legislators. Her maternal grandmother was the daughter of Thomas Butler, who was a great-grandson of that Duke of Ormond who was influential in making the treaty of Utrecht.
The Finleys and Browns are of Scotch-Irish descent and have martyr blood in their veins. The name of their clan was Farquarharson, the Gaelic of Finley. and for many years Miss Finley used that name as her pen-name. The Butlers were
MARTHA FINLEY.
military men. Five of Miss Finley's great-uncles of that name were in the war of the Revolution, two of them on Washington's staff. One of her great-uncles, Dr. Finley, was one of the early
