Jane Means Appleton Pierce (
March 12, 1806 –
December 2, 1863), wife of
Franklin Pierce, was
First Lady of the United States from
1853 to
1857.
She was born the daughter of
Congregational minister Jesse Appleton, president of
Bowdoin College. After Rev. Appleton's death, her mother moved the family to
Amherst, New Hampshire. Jane then met a Bowdoin graduate, Franklin Pierce, a young lawyer with political ambitions.
Although he was immediately devoted to Jane, they did not marry until she was 28 – surprising in that day of early marriages. Her family opposed the match; moreover, she always did her best to discourage his interest in politics. The death of a three-day-old son, the arrival of a new baby, and Jane's dislike of
Washington, D.C. counted heavily in his decision to retire in 1842 at the apparent height of his career as a
United States Senator from New Hampshire. Little Frank Robert, the second son, died the next year of
typhus.
Service in the
Mexican-American War brought Pierce the rank of
Brigadier General and local fame as a hero. He returned home safely, and for four years the Pierces lived quietly at
Concord, New Hampshire, in the happiest period of their lives, where Jane watched her son Benjamin growing up.
In 1852, the
Democratic Party made Pierce their candidate for President. His wife fainted at the news. When he took her to Newport for a respite, Benny wrote to her:
I hope he won't be elected for I should not like to be at Washington and I know you would not either. But the President-elect convinced Jane that his office would be an asset for Benny's success in life.
Franklin, Jane, and Benny were traveling on the
Boston and Maine Railroad between
Andover, Massachusetts and
Lawrence, Massachusetts on
January 6, 1853. Their car derailed near Andover and toppled over an embankment. Franklin and Jane received only minor injuries but Benny was killed before their eyes. The whole nation shared the parents' grief. The
inauguration on
March 4 took place without an inaugural ball and without the presence of Mrs. Pierce. She joined her husband later that month, but any pleasure the
White House might have brought her was gone. Other events deepened the somber mood of the new administration:
Mrs. Fillmore's death in March, and that of Vice President
William R. King in April.
Jane Pierce turned for solace to prayer. She had to force herself to meet the social obligations inherent in the role of
First Lady. Fortunately she had the companionship and help of a girlhood friend, now her aunt by marriage,
Abigail Kent Means.
Mary Anna Custis Lee wrote in a private letter:
I have known many of the ladies of the White House, none more truly excellent than the afflicted wife of President Pierce. Her health was a bar to any great effort on her part to meet the expectations of the public in her high position but she was a refined, extremely religious and well educated lady.
With retirement, the Pierces made a prolonged trip abroad in search of health for the invalid–she carried Benny's Bible throughout the journey. The quest was unsuccessful, so the couple came home to New Hampshire to be near family and friends until Jane's death in 1863. She was buried near Benny's grave.
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