Over three days, hundreds of thousands of people paid their respects to our 41st president; in Washington, in Houston, at his presidential library in College Station Texas, and of course, on national television.
But in the 1800's traditions were much different. The funerals for past presidents varied greatly. For example President Lincoln's funeral train traced the path he took to his inauguration, including a stop in Buffalo...
But the only presidential funeral to ever happen in the Queen City was in 1874 when Millard Fillmore passed away due to complications from a stroke. There was a private viewing in his home, which stood in Niagara Square, where the Statler is today. From there, a funeral procession made it's way a few blocks away, escorted by Company D of the City Guard, to St. Paul's Cathedral. St. Paul's was the first permanent church building in Western New York.
On March 12, 1874, President Fillmore's body lay in state in the Cathedral. The coffin was placed on a raised stand in the church vestibule. Among attendees at the funeral included three members of the U.S. Senate, former Lincoln Vice President Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, Thomas Francis Bayard of Delaware and Senator Reuben Eaton Fenton of Frewsburg.
After a brief and solemn service, escorts from the City Guard, The National Guard and the U-S Infantry accompanied the hearse, followed by a long line of carriages to Forest Lawn Cemetery ... to a burial plot, already selected by President Fillmore. Today, a tall sandstone obelisk honors his service, this modest headstone marks his grave and a former president lies alongside his two wives, Abigail and Carolyn, his two children and the mother of his first wife, in eternal slumber.
