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Part of the American
History & Genealogy Project |
Jane Means Appleton Pierce 1806 ~ 1863


Jane Means Appleton Pierce
Jane Means Appleton, daughter of Reverend Jesse Appleton, D.D.,
President of Bowdoin College, was born at Hampton, New
Hampshire, March 12, 1806. She was brought up under the most
refined. Christian, educational influences. Unfortunately she
was delicate from her childhood and as she grew older her
nervous organization became more and more sensitive, but her
unselfish disposition prompted her to forget herself in her
desire to contribute to the happiness and pleasure of others.
Soon after her marriage she was thrown into political society,
which was peculiarly attractive to her. She made a deep
impression by her intellectual conversation and her
comprehension of political questions. Franklin Pierce was a
member of Congress when they were married, in 1834, and though
she shrank at first from Washington society she soon became very
popular.
In 1838 Mr. Pierce removed from Hillsboro to Concord, accepting
the appointment of Attorney-General in the cabinet of James K.
Polk. This seemed to be the beginning of his national
reputation, which eventually made him President of the United
States. President and Mrs. Pierce had three children. The
eldest, a son, was traveling with his parents from Boston to
Concord, on January 5, 1852, before Mr. Pierce's inauguration,
when by an accident on the Boston and Maine Railroad, the car in
which they were sitting was over-turned, and although the
President-elect and Mrs. Pierce escaped serious injury, their
son was killed.
Such a bereavement on the threshold of their occupancy of the
White House threw a pall over the festivities attending the
inaugural and Mrs. Pierce never rallied completely from this
fearful blow. One can imagine the effort that it cost her to go
through the official functions of the White House with such a
tragedy ever before her.
After Mr. Pierce's retirement, in an effort to establish Mrs.
Pierce's health, they sailed for Europe to spend the winter in
the Island of Madeira, continuing their journey through
Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and
England. She never regained full health and died on December 2,
1863, at Andover, Massachusetts.
Women of
America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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