Franklin Pierce

He got married to Jane Means Appleton, in 1834 and the couple together had three sons, none of whom survived to see adolescence.

Weeks after being elected as the President of the United States of America, he lost his only remaining son, in a train accident, on January 6, 1853.

After their son’s death the Pierce couple became distant and during Franklin’s presidency Jane came to be known as "the shadow in the White House."

Born in the rural town of Hillsboro, New Hampshire, Franklin Pierce was one of the eight children of Benjamin and Anna Kendrick Pierce.

He received his early education at various private schools, first at Hillsborough Center and then at the Hancock Academy and in the fall of 1820, he took admission at the Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine

At college, he excelled in public speaking as well as academics, thus when he graduated in 1824, he was amongst the top three students of his class.

Later, in 1826, with the intention to study law, he entered Northampton Law School, located in the state of Massachusetts. He did his apprenticeship under Governor Levi Woodbury and Judge Edmund Parker.

He was accepted by the bar in 1827, after which he began his practice in Concord, New Hampshire.

In 1829, Pierce’s political career took off, when he became member of the Legislative Assembly of New Hampshire.

In 1831, he was appointed as the Speaker of the House with a little help from his father, who had recently become the governor of the state.

Later in 1830’s he essayed the role of a state representative at Washington, which further established him as a serious politician. However during this time, he also developed signs of alcoholism. He continued to retain his post as the member of House of Representatives till 1837.

In 1837, he was appointed to the United States Senate, where he served till 1842, when he resigned from the post on his wife’s request and joined the temperance movement, while focusing on his law practice.

With the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, Pierce voluntarily joined the army as a Colonel, in 1847.

He is the only president, who took his inauguration oath by keeping his hand on the law book, instead of the Bible.

He was the first president, who brought a Christmas tree into the White House.

His vice president William King took oath of his office in Havana, Cuba.

During his presidential term the United States of America, acquired 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico, this acquisition came to be known as the Gadsden Purchase.

He was buried in the Minot Enclosure in the Old North Cemetery of Concord, right next to his wife and sons.