University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

UB and the honoring of two presidents

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Published: December 2, 2010

On Dec. 19, 1925, two residents of Buffalo who served as president of the United States were honored with bronze tablets in the lower entrance hall of the exclusive Buffalo Club. Several gentlemen with UB connections were among those with roles at the dedication ceremony that day.

Millard Fillmore, 13th president of the United States, helped found the Buffalo Club in 1867 and served for two years as its first president. Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th president of the United States, was elected to membership in club in 1881, the same year he became mayor of Buffalo.

The Buffalo Club’s Entertainment Committee sent members a special invitation to the dedication ceremony, which was to feature guest essays on the two presidents written by Henry W. Sprague and John G. Milburn, and speeches by John Lord O’Brian and James McCormick Mitchell.

The UB connections:

• Millard Fillmore: A lawyer and congressman, Fillmore also was a founder of UB and served as the university’s first chancellor from 1846 to 1874. During his tenure as chancellor, Fillmore also served as comptroller of New York state (1848-49), as well as vice president (1849-50) and president (1850-53) of the United States. Fillmore died in 1874. Since 1960, UB has co-sponsored a ceremony at Fillmore's gravesite in Forest Lawn Cemetery on Jan. 7, the anniversary of his birth.

• Henry W. Sprague: Henry Sprague’s father, the Hon. E. Carleton Sprague, founder of the law firm of Sprague, Morey & Sprague, was UB’s third chancellor, holding that post from 1885 until 1895. During Sprague’s tenure, UB expanded to include schools of Pharmacy, Dentistry and Law. Before becoming chancellor, Sprague was one of the principle organizers of the American International Bridge Company, which later merged with the Canadian Colonial International Bridge Company to build the first international railway bridge across the Niagara River in 1870.

• John G. Milburn: A Buffalo lawyer, Milburn was one of the founding members of the Law Department of Niagara University—the first home of the UB Law School. In the original articles establishing the department in 1887, Milburn is listed as “Professor of the Theory of the Law Codes and Modification.” Milburn probably is most famous for owning the house where President William McKinley died after being shot at the Pan American Exposition in 1901.

• John Lord O’Brian: An 1898 graduate of the UB Law School, O’Brian taught insurance law at the school from 1907 until 1921. He was a distinguished lawyer and prominent public servant for whom the law school building on the North Campus is named. His service spanned the presidential administrations of Theodore Roosevelt through John F. Kennedy. On May 6, 1963, O’Brian received the Law School’s first Distinguished Alumnus Award for Public Service. After his death in 1973, some of his papers were placed in the Law Library.

• James McCormick Mitchell: An 1897 graduate of the UB Law School, Mitchell later served as chair of the Council of the University of Buffalo. Following his death, Mitchell’s wife, Lavinia, gave a gift to the university in 1950 to endow a lecture series in the Law School. The Mitchell Lecture Series is still presented annually.

—Karen Spencer, University Archives