Pierce, Jane

▪ American first lady

née  Jane Means Appleton 

born March 12, 1806, Hampton, New Hampshire, U.S.

died December 2, 1863, Andover, Massachusetts

 American first lady (1853–57), the wife of Franklin Pierce (Pierce, Franklin), 14th president of the United States.

      Jane Appleton was the third of six children born to Jesse Appleton, a Congregational minister and president of Bowdoin College, and Elizabeth Means Appleton. Although the details of her education are unclear, she showed an early interest in literature and spent some time at a boarding school in Keene, New Hampshire; she also studied piano in Boston. Jane's sister Frances married one of Franklin Pierce's tutors at Bowdoin, and it is likely that Jane and Franklin met through this association. Despite her family's strong objection to Franklin's intense political ambitions, the couple wed on November 19, 1834.

      While Franklin served in the New Hampshire state legislature (1829–33), the United States House of Representatives (Representatives, House of) (1833–37), and the Senate (1837–42), Jane was forced to perform the social duties of a political wife, though she found them agonizing and tried to avoid them when she could. She blamed her husband's political friends in Washington, D.C., for his excessive drinking, and she was convinced that there was a connection between Franklin's political success and the many tragedies that struck her family, including the death of their first child, Franklin Jr., only three days after his birth in 1836.

      In 1842 Jane persuaded Franklin to resign his Senate seat and leave Washington for New Hampshire, where she devoted herself to caring for their two surviving sons, Frank Robert (“Frankie”) and Benjamin (“Bennie”). Frankie's death one year later brought the couple severe distress and caused Jane's health to deteriorate. Respecting his wife's strong wishes, Franklin refused an offer from President James K. Polk (Polk, James K.) to be attorney general, and he later declined an appointment to the Senate (to fill an unexpired term) and nomination as governor of New Hampshire, declaring that he “never again…[wanted] to be voluntarily separated from my family for any considerable time except at the call of my country in time of war.”

      Jane fainted when she learned that the Democratic Party had nominated her husband for the presidency in 1852, and she later prayed for his defeat. While she was in New Hampshire, Bennie wrote to her that “I hope he won't be elected for I should not like to be at Washington and I know you would not either.” Eventually, she accepted Franklin's victory and prepared to return to Washington. However, just weeks before the inauguration, the Pierces were involved in a tragic train accident in which Bennie, then 11 years old, was killed before their eyes. Sinking into a deep depression, Jane eventually came to believe that God had taken her son so that her husband would not be distracted from his duties as president. She did not attend her son's funeral or her husband's inauguration, and during Franklin's presidency she rarely left the White House. Female relatives presided at most of the social events—which were limited—and Jane saw few people besides family and close friends.

      At the end of Franklin's single term, the couple traveled to Europe for a year and a half, but by 1860 they had returned to Concord, New Hampshire. Jane also spent time with relatives in Massachusetts. When she died in 1863, she was buried near her children.

Betty Boyd Caroli

Additional Reading

A short biography of Jane Pierce is Debbie Mauldin Cottrell, “Jane (Means Appleton) Pierce,” in Lewis L. Gould, (ed.), American First Ladies: Their Lives and Their Legacy (1996), pp. 166–173. A biography of her husband that covers her role in his career is Roy Franklin Nichols, Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills, 2nd ed., completely rev. (1958, reissued 1993).

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