Pierce Administration - Family Life
Family Life
In 1834 Franklin Pierce married Jane Means Appleton, the daughter of a Congregational minister and former Bowdoin College president. Although Jane Pierce gave her husband strong social connections, her Calvinist, Federalist upbringing made her disdain Pierce's Democratic politics. Her poor health added to the family's difficulties, but Jane and Franklin loved each other deeply and got along very well.
Tragedy haunted the Pierces as they lost each of their three children. Their first born, Franklin, died at just three days old and Frank Robert at age four. Benjamin, their last child whom Jane Pierce doted upon, was crushed to death before his parents' eyes at age 11 in a train wreck, only a few months before Pierce's inauguration in 1853. Jane and Franklin were physically unharmed, but the loss of their only remaining son destroyed what was left of Jane's mental and physical health and may have crippled Franklin's...
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