There are the well-known founding presidents: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. There are other legendary 19th-century presidents — Jackson, Lincoln, and Grant — plus the larger-than-life 20th-century leaders: two Roosevelts, Wilson, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan, and others. But then there are those presidents whose names have slipped from our national consciousness, including several we’ll examine in the next few weeks.

Even some ardent students of history remain unaware of Millard Fillmore. His rise to the presidency is a classic rags-to-riches tale that deserves a retelling.

Fillmore, the second of eight children, was born into a poor farming family that moved from Vermont to New York in hopes of securing a better life. Those early years included days of hunger, an apprenticeship to a cruel taskmaster, hiding in shadows with borrowed books in an attempt to learn to read, and ultimately borrowing money to purchase his own freedom from his master.

After returning home, Fillmore embarked on a personal improvement program that centered on books and a friendship with a young teacher who would provide him with books, encourage his growth, and later become his wife. Millard, just emerging from his teens, taught school while studying the law. By 1823, Millard and Abigail were on a course to prosperity; he opened a law practice and was considered by his East Aurora, New York, neighbors and friends as a hardworking and self-disciplined young man.

And then politics called out to Fillmore. A new political party was formed in opposition to those who were united by a fraternal order — the Freemasons — and were perceived to hold too much power in the community and government. The Anti-Masonic Party composed the opposition, and Millard Fillmore was an early convert and a candidate for the New York state legislature. His primary campaign platform, the elimination of debtor prisons, captured votes, and he was elected. Three years later, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and as his political party faded away, Fillmore became a Whig and stood firmly in opposition to Andrew Jackson’s “imperial presidency.”

In 1844, Fillmore left the House and campaigned for the New York governorship. He lost that election, but by 1847, he was elected as New York’s comptroller by such a wide margin that he became a national figure in the Whig Party and joined Zachary Taylor on the presidential ticket in 1848.

Sometimes politics creates its own version of an odd couple, and a Taylor-Fillmore ticket seemed a bit odd. Taylor, the hero of the Mexican War, was indeed “Old Rough and Ready,” and Fillmore had worked hard to become a model public leader, articulate, well-dressed, and quite socially skilled. Interestingly, they did not meet until after the votes had been counted and they had won — and they never became friends or true colleagues. In fact, Fillmore’s mentor, Henry Clay, was not offered a cabinet position because he was Fillmore’s friend. And yet the vice president gained his own following as he presided over the Senate — his only role in the administration — where he was applauded for his willingness to foster compromise and encourage cooperation.

When Taylor died in office, the relatively unknown vice president was thrust into the spotlight, and after having not even attended any cabinet meetings or strategy sessions, he became the nation’s chief executive. A bit unsettling…

And yet Fillmore took several important foreign policy steps:

1) He authorized the first trade mission to Japan, led by Commodore Matthew Perry.

2) While the U.S. and Great Britain had signed the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty in 1850, Great Britain continued a not-so-subtle push for influence in Central America. Fillmore sent warships to protect U.S. interests, reasserting the Monroe Doctrine.

3) He was less successful in dealing with a Southern attempt to invade Cuba and lead a revolution that would hopefully add Cuba to the Southern U.S. lands as a slavery-supporting property. The Southerners criticized Fillmore for not supporting the invasion; the Northern leaders castigated him for allowing the fiasco to occur. The president apologized to the Spanish government, and the appeasement was successful.

4) While the president supported the early 1850s Hungarian Revolution with his words, he did little to support the liberation movement through funding and arms, allowing the Democrats to seize the opportunity by creating a “Young America” movement in support of the continuing revolutions sweeping across Eastern Europe.

The 1852 election would sweep Franklin Pierce into the White House. Fillmore returned to New York, joined a new political party — the Know-Nothings — and remained quietly involved.