MARGARET TAYLOR .

After the election of 1848, a riverboat passenger struck up a conversation with President Zachary Taylor, not knowing his identity. The passenger asked if he was "a Taylor man." "Not much of a one," the General replied, saying he had not voted for Taylor because his wife was opposed to sending "Old Zack" to Washington, "where she would be obliged to go with him!" It was a truthful answer.

Moreover, the story goes that Margaret Taylor had taken a vow during the Mexican War that if her husband returned safely, she would never go into society again. In fact she never did, though prepared for it by genteel upbringing.

"Peggy" Smith was born in 1788 in Calvert County, Maryland, daughter of a major in the Revolutionary War. In 1809 while visiting in Kentucky she met young Lieutenant Taylor. They were married the following June, and for a while the young wife stayed on the farm given them by Zachary's father. She bore her first baby there, then followed her husband from one remote garrison to another along the western frontier of civilization.

Two small girls died in 1820 of what Taylor called "a violent bilious fever," which left Margaret’s health impaired. Three girls and a boy grew up. Knowing the hardships of a military wife, Taylor opposed his daughters' marrying career soldiers, but each eventually married into the Army.

The second daughter, Knox, married Lieutenant Jefferson Davis in gentle defiance of her parents. Within three months of her wedding, Knox died of malaria. Zachary Taylor was not reconciled to Davis until they fought together in Mexico. The second Mrs. Davis became a good friend of Margaret Taylor, often calling on her at the White House.

As a president’s wife, Mrs. Taylor took no part in formal social functions. She relegated all the duties of official hostess to her youngest daughter, Mary Elizabeth, recent bride of Lieutenant Colonel William W. S. Bliss. "Betty" Bliss filled her role admirably. One observer thought that her manner blended "the artlessness of a rustic belle and the grace of a duchess."

For Mrs. Taylor, her husband's death on July 9, 1850 was an appalling blow. Never again did she speak of the White House. She spent her last days with the Blisses, dying on August 18, 1852.

ABIGAIL POWERS FILLMORE .

First of the first ladies to hold a job after marriage, Abigail Fillmore was helping her husband's career. She was also revealing her most striking personal characteristic: an eagerness to learn and pleasure in teaching others.

She was born in Saratoga County, New York, in 1798, while it was still on the fringe of civilization. Her father, a locally prominent Baptist preacher, died shortly thereafter. Her mother courageously moved on westward, thinking her scanty funds would go further in a less settled region. She ably educated her small son and daughter beyond the usual frontier level with the help of her late husband's library.

Abigail Powers met Millard Fillmore when they were both students at a recently opened academy in the village of New Hope. His struggle to make his way as a lawyer was so long and ill paid that they were not wed until February 1826. She resumed teaching school after the marriage. Their only son, Millard Powers, was born in 1828.

Attaining prosperity at last, Fillmore bought his family a house in Buffalo. Abigail learned the ways of society as a congressman’s wife. She cultivated a noted flower garden, but much of her time, as always, was spent reading. A daughter, little Mary Abigail was born in 1832. In 1849, the family went to Washington when Millard became vice president. Then, after Zachary Taylor's death at a height of sectional crisis, the Fillmores moved into the White House.

The new first lady presided with grace at state dinners and receptions; but a permanent injury to her ankle made Friday levees an ordeal - two hours of standing at her husband's side to greet the public. She preferred reading or music in private. Pleading delicate health, she entrusted many routine social duties to her attractive daughter "Abby." With a special appropriation from Congress, she spent contented hours selecting books for a White House library and arranging them in the oval room upstairs.

Despite chronic poor health, Mrs. Fillmore stayed near her husband through the outdoor ceremonies of President Pierce's inauguration while a raw northeast wind whipped snow over the crowd. She developed pneumonia and died on March 30, 1853. The House of Representatives and the Senate adjourned, and public offices closed in respect, as her family took her body home to Buffalo for burial.

JANE PIERCE .

In looks and tragic destiny, Jane Means Appleton resembled the heroine of a Victorian novel. The gentle dignity of her face reflected her sensitive personality and physical weakness. She was born in 1806, daughter of the president of Bowdoin College. The subsequent death of her father prompted the family to move from Maine to Amherst, New Hampshire. There, Jane met a young lawyer with political ambitions, Franklin Pierce. They did not marry until she was 28 - surprising in that day of early marriages.

Jane always did her best to discourage her husband’s interest in politics. In 1842, the death of their first-born son, the arrival of a new baby and Jane's dislike of Washington weighed heavily in his decision to retire from the United States Senate at the apparent height of his career. Little Frank Robert, the second son, died the next year of typhus.

Service in the Mexican War brought Pierce the rank of brigadier and local fame as a hero. He returned home safely, and for four years the Pierces lived quietly at Concord, New Hampshire, in the happiest period of their lives. With attentive pleasure Jane watched her third son Benjamin growing up.

When the Democratic Party made Pierce their candidate for president in 1852, Jane fainted at the news. When Franklin took her to Newport for a respite, Benny wrote to her: "I hope he won't be elected for I should not like to be at Washington and I know you would not either." But the president-elect convinced Jane that his office would be an asset for their son’s success in life. On a journey by train, January 6, 1853, their car was derailed and Benny killed before their eyes. The whole nation shared the parents' grief. The inauguration on March 4, 1854 took place without an inaugural ball and without the presence of Mrs. Pierce. She joined her husband later that month, but any pleasure the White House might have brought her was gone. From this loss she never recovered fully.

She had to force herself to meet the social obligations inherent in the role of First Lady. Mrs. Robert E. Lee wrote in a private letter: "I have known many of the ladies of the White House, none more truly excellent than the afflicted wife of President Pierce…she was a refined, extremely religious and well educated lady."

With retirement, the Pierces made a prolonged trip abroad. Jane carried Benny's Bible throughout the journey. The couple came home to New Hampshire to be near family and friends until Jane's death in 1863. She was buried near Benny's grave.

Harriet Lane .

Unique among first ladies, Harriet Lane acted as hostess for the only president who never married. James Buchanan was her favorite uncle and her guardian after she was orphaned at the age of eleven. And of all the ladies of the White House, few achieved such great success in deeply troubled times as this polished young woman in her 20s.

She was born in 1830 in the rich farming country of Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Her uncle supervised her sound education in private school, completed by two years at the Visitation Convent in Georgetown. By this time "Nunc" was secretary of state, and he introduced her to fashionable circles. In 1854 she joined him in London, where he was minister to the Court of St. James's. Queen Victoria gave "dear Miss Lane" the rank of ambassador's wife; admiring suitors gave her the fame of a beauty.

"Hal" Lane enlivened social gatherings with a mixture of spontaneity and poise. After the sadness of the Pierce administration, the capital welcomed its "Democratic Queen" in 1857. Harriet Lane filled the White House with gaiety and flowers, and guided its social life with enthusiasm and discretion, winning national popularity.

As sectional tensions increased, she sat formal dinner parties with care, giving dignitaries proper precedence while keeping political foes apart. Her task became impossible. Seven states had seceded by the time Buchanan retired from office. He thankfully returned with his niece to his spacious country home, Wheatland, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The popular Miss Lane flirted happily with numerous beaux, but waited until she was almost 36 to marry. Within the next 18 years she faced one sorrow after another: the loss of her uncle, her two fine young sons, and her husband.

She decided to live in Washington, among friends made during happier years. She had acquired a sizable art collection, largely of European works, which she bequeathed to the government. Accepted after her death in 1903, it inspired an official of the Smithsonian Institution to call her the "First Lady of the National Collection of Fine Arts."

Harriet also dedicated a generous sum to endow a home for invalid children at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. It became an outstanding pediatric facility, and its reputation is a fitting memorial to the young lady who presided at the White House with such dignity and charm. The Harriet Lane Outpatient Clinics serve thousands of children today.