Francis A. Nixon

Francis Anthony Nixon (December 3, 1878 – September 4, 1956) was an American businessman and the father of U.S. president Richard Nixon. Early life Nixon was born in Elk Township, Vinton County, Ohio, the son of Samuel Brady Nixon, who was from Smith Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, and Sarah Ann (née Wadsworth), a native of Hocking Township, Fairfield County, Ohio. Nixon's family ancestry included colonial Pennsylvania Quakers. He was raised Methodist, however, but converted to Quakerism when he married Hannah Milhous. Sarah Nixon died in January 1888, leading Francis to live with an uncle during his father's struggle to avoid poverty and to cope with the loss of Sarah. After Francis' father remarried, Francis moved away. Biographer Jonathan Aitken cited Francis' disliking of his new stepmother as his reason for leaving. Nixon proceeded to have multiple jobs during the next fourteen years. Throughout his youth, Nixon idealized U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. Biographer Stephen E. Ambrose wrote that Nixon ceased favoring the Democratic Party by the age of 17. During the campaign for the 1896 United States presidential election, Nixon had an encounter with presidential candidate William McKinley, who asked him how he was going to vote, Nixon replying, "Republican, of course!" Ambrose cited the encounter as completing Nixon's switch to favoring the Republican Party.