The Waterstraut Waterspout: Happy 215th Birthday, Millard Fillmore!

Happy Birthday to everyone's (least) favorite president, Millard Fillmore! Good old (un)lucky number 13. For real, you guys, this was not the president I would have chosen to start this project with. The white house website calls him "uninspiring", and historians have been as harsh to say "to discuss Millard Fillmore is to overrate him". Peyton's totally inappropriate and AWESOME book that he got for Christmas had the funniest chapter on Millard Fillmore that I could totally relate to. It reads: "I'm sorry, I know this book is about pointing out true facts about presidents, and for every other chapter that's exactly what I did, but holy crap, Millard Fillmore is just terrible. If you've never locked yourself in your apartment with eleven books about our thirteenth president only to come away with absolutely nothing interesting or usable while a deadline looms over your head, you'll never truly understand frustration. That's me. I did that. I read more about Millard Fillmore than any man should, and the only conclusion I've arrived at is that Millard "Not Even Cool Enough to Get a Nickname" Fillmore sucks, and is boring, and sucks." The chapter is even titled "One of our Most Millard Fillmore-esque Presidents" I've never read anything I related to more.

But, today is his birthday, and as such is the first presidential birthday of the year. So today, we start our project celebrating the guy who happened to become President because someone told Zachary Taylor this Congressmen he never met (and would meet until after the election), would get him some votes in the north- and so he did. They won, and this guy who Taylor ends up hating becomes his Vice President. And then Zachary Taylor went and got cholera and died. Maybe from some milk, cherries, or water. But either way, if he just hadn't scarfed all that down at a fourth of July party, nobody would know Millard Fillmore. Not that everyone knows who he is these days anyway.

A couple of things before we get started. We have added another wall to my house (ok, now I really think I'm out of space)-- this time it's a "Historical Hashtags" wall! Each President has their own spot for a flip book the boys are working together on, and then we'll come up with a twitter post complete with their own hashtag. The boys really liked this idea, and it helps give some modern day fun context to some very, very, old dead guys.

Also, I have a spot for everyone who has a birthday this month, and below that a list of all the presidents favorite foods. This month we've got Millard Fillmore, Richard Nixon, William McKinley, and FDR.

We're doing a 'toy timeline' type of thing to give the story of each president. I have 15 Presidential pez dispensers, with 10 more on the way. Plus, I have some finger puppets. But, I'll also make do with the guys who I don't have thing for (you'll see that later). Whats great about the pez ones though, is I usually give the boys quick little 'pop quizzes' at the end of theme days/weeks, and give out smarties. But, I can use the dispensers and give out pez instead! The little things amuse me.

Millard Fillmore was born very, very poor in a log cabin in New York (while we often hear about presidents growing up in log cabins only 6 actually did). His father sent him off to work as an apprentice to a cloth maker as soon as he was old enough. He got paid for his son's work, and it was one less mouth to feed. But, Millard was treated horribly. He was borderline a slave. So, he borrowed $30, paid off the clothmaker and walked 100 miles back home.

Millard didn't have much formal education. He taught himself how to read and write, and he loved books. When we was 16, he went to a one room schoolroom house to further his education. There he met his teacher, only two years his senior, Abigail Powers (Seen here as Cinderella). The two would go on to get married, and Millard eventually went to law school and became a lawyer. They had two kids, and moved to Washington when Millard was elected to Congress.

Oh, and fun story about the Mason-Dixon line, Millard had two horses named Mason and Dixon.

Meanwhile, a military man and slave owner in Louisiana by the name of Zachary Taylor decided to run of President, during the election of 1848. Someone suggested they add a Congressman from the north to the ticket to help secure some votes in the north. They figured Millard Fillmore would be a good pick. And so, Zachary Taylor asked Millard Fillmore if he'd like to be his VP. The two had never met, and would never met until after they were elected to office.

But the two didn't really get along, in fact they ended up hating each other (see how far Millard is away from Zachary Taylor? I should have taken a better picture, but Taylor is on top of a bunch of blocks with his whole cabinet around him, and Millard Fillmore is way off to the left, with Senator Henry Clay-- aka Han Solo). Basically, Taylor and his cabinet did everything they could to keep Millard Fillmore out of anything they did.

The biggest issue facing the country during this time was what to do with all the land that had been aquired in the Mexican-American War. So, Henry Clay came up with a series of bills called the 'Compromise of 1850'. Basically, Texas would be a slave state, California would be free, slavery in D.C. would be abolished the territories of Utah and New Mexico could vote on it. But the biggest part of the whole bill was the Fugative Slave Act, which stated that all escaped slaves were, upon capture, to be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate with the law. Zachary Taylor wasn't really a fan of this series of bills, though and was letting it die in Congress.

But then there was a big party for the fourth of July. Zachary Taylor consumed all kinds of ice cold milk, cherries, and water. Something he consumed was contaminated though, and he ended up with cholera. After four days of being absolutely miserable. He died, and Millard Fillmore became president. This scenerio has got to be one of those 'those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it' lessons. Do not pick a VP only to get votes. I mean, you could eat some cherries one day and someone like Millard Fillmore could end up running the country.

But, here they are, Millard Fillmore becomes president, Zachary Taylors ENTIRE cabinet resigns, because they refuse to work under the guy- and the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive slave act get signed into law. Instead of 'Compromise', it really just pissed everyone off. But, it did give everyone something/someone to hate: Millard Fillmore. Sure he did some other notable stuff (that you REALLY have to dig to find). He opened trade with Japan, and kept the Hawaii territory out of France's hands. But, nobody remembers that.

How often does a VP actually become President? Well, it happens less than you might think.

The Compromise, and the Fugitive Slave Act really become a catalyst from the Civil War. It just heightens tensions instead of relieving them. So, you can sort of even blame poor Millard for the Civil War. When it was time to run for re-election the Whig party didn't even give him the nomination to run for President, and that was the end of Millard Fillmore-- and the Whig party. Some call him the "last of the Whigs", some just say it was one more thing Millard ruined. He moved back to New York after Franklin Pierce was elected the 14th President, where he swore off politics. Until his daughter and wife died, and then he tried to run again. This time he was part of the short-lived "know-nothing" party (yes, thats a real thing), and lost yet again. Making him even worse in the eyes of historians? He disagreed with almost everything Abraham Lincoln did. You know, the President who consistently ranks as the best. When Lincoln was assassinated, people threw black paint at Fillmore's house, because they were so angry at him for his lack of mourning.

I did read one cool story about Millard Fillmore, there was a fire at the library of Congress, and he and his cabinet went down to help fight it. He always had quite the love of books, you know. And so we did a fun little fire experiment. I had seen it a few times, and we got a Science lesson from Asa along with it. But, if you take a tea bag (two really, ones that are connected), empty the contents, and then stand it up- you can light it on fire and it will go shooting up like a rocket. There's no worry doing it indoors, as it burns off pretty fast. You can check it out here if you're interested in doing it. It was pretty cool.

It's hard to see it in the pictures, but it did float up and was pretty cool.

I'm trying to have a couple of activities to do with the boys for each president too (I mean some of them are a real stretch like the fire experiment-- but it's not like there's much to work with when you're learning about Millard Fillmore). We made little raccoons out of felt, since that was the mascot of the Whig party.

The boys filled out their little flip book, and then decided Millard, if he lived in the age of twitter would tweet something to the effect of "Great Party #EatMoreCherries #AintNoPartyLikeAWhigParty"

While we went through the toy time line, we added some things to our poster for the day, and something we'll leave up throughout the month to help remind the boys.

In the 1960's the Millard Fillmore society was formed. They've since disbanded, but they used to get together every year to celebrate Millard Fillmore's birthday (so today, WE were the Millard Fillmore society!) They gave out scholarships, and even had a newsletter called "Milestones with Millard". We renamed today's Waterstraut Weekly in their honor.

We'll also be having meals to honor our president of the day. Asa was excited he got to use his new garlic chopper I had gotten him for Christmas.

Millard Fillmore was actually the first president to have the first iron cookstove in the White House. Before that, it was all done colonial style with an open hearth. But, having that didn't translate to a zest for food. No, the very boring Millard Fillmore remained requesting very boring food he had as a child, mostly soups. They would serve the broth of the soup first, drink that, and then fill the same bowl with the meat and veggies. Millard Fillmore said there was no point in wasting food and dishes (Which made Calib like the guy, since he's on dishes this week!)

Instead of making a cake for every president, we'll be making some of the presidents favorite desserts. Millard Fillmore's was corn pudding.

Happy Birthday, Millard Fillmore! You may be a totally forgettable president, but my kids now know more about you than anyone else I know.

In other news, Calib started his Monday classes at Mosi. It's a six week session, and since we're currently working on one car I had to take Asa to work so I could take Calib to Mosi. But, it was a good reminder of how awesome I have it--- sleeping in until 9 am every morning. While Calib was off at class, Peyton, Hayden, and I enjoyed the exhibits and went to watch an IMAX documentary.

(Look at the total lack of people around, it was AWESOME!)

In this exhibit you put on goggles that make you feel drunk. Hayden loved it, and said 'being drunk i so cool!', I don't think it had the right effect.

We went out to the butterfly house too.

We picked up Asa around 1. Because of work from home, being able to move his schedule around once per quarter, and Calib not having class on Presidents day, that was the only Monday I would have to pick him back up, and it didn't make sense to come home only to drive back a couple hours later. It's a good thing I got him too. We ended up with a flat tire. Not something I wanted to replace this week, but such is life.

But, now it's the Waterstraut Weekend. We went out for date night last night.

And, I've been getting a lot of work done- for Nixon's birthday on Friday and for Harry Potter week starting either Saturday or Sunday, depending what we end up doing this actual weekend.