Jane Pierce

Jane Means Pierce (née Appleton; March 12, 1806 – December 2, 1863) was the wife of Franklin Pierce and the first lady of the United States from 1853 to 1857. She married Franklin Pierce, then a Congressman, in 1834 despite her family's misgivings. She refused to live in Washington, D.C., and in 1842, she convinced her husband to retire from politics. He sought the Democratic presidential nomination without her knowledge in 1852 and was elected president later that year. Their only surviving son, Benjamin, was killed in a train accident prior to Franklin's inauguration, sending Jane into a deep depression that would afflict her for the rest of her life. Pierce was reclusive in her role as first lady, spending the first two years of her husband's presidency in a period of mourning for her son. Her duties at this time were often fulfilled by Abby Kent-Means. After the conclusion of Franklin's presidency they traveled abroad for two years before settling in Massachusetts. She died of tuberculosis in 1863. Pierce disliked political life and was unhappy in the role of first lady. She took interest in the issue of abolitionism, and she attempted to influence her husband's decisions on the subject during her time as first lady. Raised as a Puritan, Pierce was strictly religious, and she believed that the tragedies she suffered through her life were divine retribution for the sins of her and her husband. Jane is described as an opposite of her husband, who was outgoing, political, and a heavy drinker in contrast to her reclusive nature, aversion to politics, and teetotalism. Early life Jane Appleton was born in Hampton, New Hampshire on March 12, 1806, to Congregationalist minister Jesse Appleton and his wife Elizabeth Means Appleton. The Appleton family grew to a total of six children: three elder daughters, of which Jane was the third, and three younger sons. Their father became president of Bowdoin College in 1807, and the family settled in Brunswick, Maine (then part of Massachusetts). Her father's religious practices included a strict fasting diet that caused his health to decline, leading to his death in 1819. After his death, the family lived with Elizabeth's mother in Amherst, New Hampshire. In her childhood, Appleton acquired a devotion to Puritan, evangelical Calvinism. Appleton came from a well-off and well-connected New England family. Jane's education was of a high quality, consisting of both public schooling and homeschooling.