Franklin Pierce, his Family and the Homestead

Both Benjamin and his wife Anna had family in America since the early Puritan settlements of the 1620s.  Growing up in rough, sometimes violent times, they wanted their children to have a better life and education than their own. The year Franklin was born, Benjamin built the Franklin Homestead.  The home had large spacious rooms, hand stenciled walls, imported wallpaper that symbolized the elegance of the time.  

Benjamin had arrived in Hillsborough in 1756, about 50 years after the town was settled. He served under General George Washington in the Revolution, but at war=s end, found himself destitute.

The surrounding land at Hillsborough had affordable prices for land, so Benjamin purchased a log cabin with 50 acres of land. Following the death of his first wife, Elizabeth Andrews, Benjamin married Anna. 

When the Homestead was completed, Benjamin had become a distinguished and prosperous man. He had served the public for more than 57 years to include two terms as the Governor of New Hampshire.  The Pierce Homestead became a gathering place of many individuals, including Daniel Webster. Benjamin also used the large ballroom on the second floor as a training area for drilling the local militia groups.  

The grounds of the Homestead also consist of an artificial pond and a lattice summerhouse, which were quite beautiful for their day. Franklin Pierce said of the Homestead: 

"I leave Hillsborough with no ordinary regret. There are a thousand reasons why it cannot be otherwise - I have hitherto known no other home. Here have passed many of the happiest days and months of my life. With these streams and mountains are associated most of the delightful recollections of buoyant and happy boyhood, and in my early intercourse with the generous, independent, and intelligent yeomanry of Hillsborough. I became attached to, and learned how to highly appreciate this class of community, which constitutes the true nobility of this country. I need hardly say that I shall never cease to remember my birthplace with pride as well as affection, and with still more pride shall I recollect the steady, unqualified and generous confidence which has been reposed in me by its inhabitants."

Four years later, in 1828, Franklin was elected to the State Legislature, and in 1830, he was sent to the United States House of Representatives, where he served five terms before being elected to the U.S. Senate, at the age of 37. At the age of 41, Franklin retired to Concord, New Hampshire, where he practiced law. Pierce was an outstanding lawyer, who gained much fame for his practice.  It was said that it would have been fair to have 12 lawyers opposing him at the same time.  

In 1834, Franklin married Jane Means Appleton of Amherst, New Hampshire. They would have three children together, which led to much heartache.  Their first child, Franklin, Jr., was born in 1836, but lived only three days. Their second child, Frank Robert, called Franky, was born three years later in 1839, died at the age of 4 in 1843 of typhus.  Their last child, Benjamin, called Bennie, was born in 1841, and died in 1853 before their eyes in a train accident. 

While still working as a lawyer in private practice, in 1846, Franklin turned down a nomination for Governor as well as a cabinet position under President Polk.  What did bring Pierce to leave his private life and practice was the Mexican War, whereby he enlisted as a private and rose to colonel, then finally general. 

In 1852 Pierce once again was called upon to serve his country, during a Democratic Convention deadlock held in Baltimore. It seemed that none of the four candidates, that included James Buchanan and Stephen A. Douglas, were able to win the votes necessary to gain the presidential nomination. After voting 48 times, the delegates from Virginia introduced Franklin Pierce=s name in the hope that it would break the deadlock. The Convention accepted the nomination, which Pierce finally agreed to after some convincing. The election of 1852 focused on few issues, as it was thought that the Compromise of 1850 settled the issue of slavery. Pierce favored the Compromise and supported the Fugitive Slave Law that won him votes in the South, resulting in an impressive electoral victory.  Thus, Franklin Pierce was elected President of the United States at the age of 48, the youngest up to this time. 

It would be on his trip to Washington D.C. that he and his wife witnessed the dead of their son in the train accident.  Franklin's wife Jane, the new First lady, was so grief stricken that she was not seen in public for the two years that followed. She became known as the Shadow of the White House. Franklin too was grieving, all the while, dealt with the various problems that faced the nation.  The two issues that Pierce had to tackle were in the South, many feared that the Kansas-Nebraska Territory acquired in the Gadsden Purchase of 1853 would enter the Union as Free States, which would give the North a political advantage.  In the North, many had an extreme hatred against immigrants from Europe, whereas Pierce defended their rights under the Constitution.  

What transpired next was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed people settling in the western territories to decide whether or not to allow slavery? Pierce, believing the bill upheld the spirit of the Constitution, supported it. This resulted in a rush on both sides to Kansas, where the conflict became armed; resulting in a bloodbath, and Pierce was blamed.