President: Franklin Pierce

Wife: Jane Means Appleton (1806-1863), on November 10, 1834

Kids: Franklin Pierce (1836); Frank Robert Pierce (1839-43); Benjamin Pierce (1841-53)

Pets: no pets

Bio: Franklin Pierce, (1804-1869), was the 14th President Of The United States. Born in Hillsborough Lower Village, New Hampshire on Nov. 23, 1804, Franklin Pierce was one of eight children. His father had served in the American Revolution and as governor of New Hampshire. Franklin was educated at Hillsborough Center, Hancock Academy, and Bowdoin College, from which he graduated fifth in his class in 1824. He then studied law and was admitted to the New Hampshire bar in 1827.

In 1829, Pierce was elected to the New Hampshire legislature and in 1834 became a US Congressman. Three years later he moved on to become a U. S. senator. On Nov. 19, 1834, Pierce married Jane Means Appleton, a daughter of the former president of Bowdoin College. His wife did not approve of the drinking in the Capitol, and so convinced Pierce to return to NH, where he opened a law practice in Concord. At the start of the Mexican War, he enlisted as a private, and was quickly promoted through the ranks to brigadier general. His leg was crushed in the Battle of Churubusco, yet he stayed with his command until the capture of Mexico City.

In June 1852, Pierce was elected as president. Soon after the election, the Pierce family was in a train wreck, and the parents watched as their third and only surviving child, 11-year-old Benjamin, was crushed to death. Mrs. Pierce was so grief-stricken she became a recluse, and the President himself was less able to function due to the mourning he experienced.

During his term, the slavery issue was in the forefront of national politics. He was against expansion, yet pursued a foreign policy that included acquiring Cuba. That never came to be.

Pierce was not renominated in 1856. He spent his last years in virtual seclusion and died in Concord on Oct. 8, 1869.