Coins DIG

With close to 1,000 witnesses watching, a young Millard Fillmore impersonator and his equally sprite make-believe wife Abigail poured from a wooden bucket a stream of coins bearing the face of the 13th president and Moravia native.

The United States Mint Thursday released its 13th presidential dollar coin, honoring Millard

Fillmore, at a ceremony in the Moravia Junior Senior School cafeteria, which was not large enough to accommodate the crowd of community members who had come to celebrate a president whose national legacy is not legendary, but whose roots are their roots.

“This is a grand, grand event,” Moravia Mayor Gary Mulvaney said, as he waited in a line that started at the cafeteria doors and wound through the school.

When the cafeteria reached capacity, with children nearly sitting on top of each other as they crouched on the floor and parents pressed close together, a viewing area was set up, complete with sound, in the hallway.

“Just the history of it,” said Moravia resident Cindy Darling, explaining why she came. “It's something new for Moravia.”

Fillmore, who became president upon Zachary Taylor's death in 1850, signed the Compromise of 1850 and helped open relations with Japan. He was not re-elected when his term ended in 1852. Fillmore later served as the first chancellor of the University of Buffalo and died in March 1874.

In most parts of the country, Fillmore may leave little more impression on schoolchildren than the president between Zachary Taylor and Franklin Pierce or the president who allegedly was the first to install a bathtub in the White House (a myth, proven untrue), but Fillmore is part of the curriculum in Moravia, alongside Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington.

Children absorb history lessons much better when the material is relatable, said Moravia social studies teacher John Haight. Fillmore - who was born in a log cabin in Summer hill, worked on the family farm as a child and spent his first earnings on a dictionary after winning a contest spelling words he did not know the meaning of - is about as relatable as textbook portraits come.

The coin ceremony was just one more opportunity for Moravians and others from the area to celebrate the accomplishments of one of their own, regardless of national renown and fame.

“The Fillmore coin is a great tribute to a forgotten man,” said Haight.

“Fillmore would be tickled pink,” he added.

A separate coin release was held in Buffalo, where Fillmore is buried. As outlined by the Wall Street Journal Thursday, Buffalo wanted to host the official U.S. Mint event, but was passed over for the site of Fillmore's beginning.

The U.S. Mint holds its presidential coin release events at a place of historic significance to each president for exactly that reason demonstrated by the hundreds of people who came to see Fillmore's coin - the connection a group of people feel to those who lived there before them, said Andrew D. Brunhart, deputy director of the U.S. Mint.

“When we come to a person's home state and remember and recognize their history it rejuvenates and refreshes all of us on their contributions to our nation,” said Brunhart.

Brunhart said he has seen crowds as large as 5,000 and as small as 70. Thursday's turnout was evidence that Fillmore is an important part of the area's culture that residents greatly value.

After the ceremony concluded, the crowd shifted to tables where children could claim their own Fillmore coin for free and adults could purchase them, which they did, leaving with multiple $10 rolls.

“I just thought it would be a great piece of history,” said Anne Reynolds, of Aurora. Before coming, she and her two daughters, Catherine and Sarah, read up on Fillmore's life and presidency. “I think it's neat to give us a little claim to fame in our area,” Reynolds said.

Source: auburnpub.com