Jesse Appleton

Jesse Appleton (November 17, 1772 – November 12, 1819), who was the second president of Bowdoin College and the father of First Lady Jane Pierce.

Jesse Appleton
2nd President of Bowdoin College
In office
1809–1819
Preceded byJoseph McKeen
Succeeded byWilliam Allen
Personal details
BornNovember 17, 1772
New Ipswich, New Hampshire
DiedNovember 12, 1819(1819-11-12) (aged 46)
Brunswick, Maine
Spouse(s)Elizabeth Means
Children5, including Jane Pierce
ResidenceBrunswick, Maine
Alma materDartmouth College (1792)
ProfessionProfessor

Early life

Appleton was born on November 17, 1772 in New Ipswich, New Hampshire. He was the son of Francis Appleton (1733–1816) and Elizabeth (née Hubbard) Appleton (1730–1815).[1]

He graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1792.[1]

Career

After graduating from Dartmouth, Appleton taught at several institutions including Amherst College and then worked at a parish in Hampton, New Hampshire. In the early 19th century, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from both Dartmouth and Harvard University. In 1807, he was appointed president of Bowdoin, where he remained until he died of tuberculosis in 1819. A congregationalist minister and prominent Christian lecturer, Appleton was notably determined to make Bowdoin students more pious. He worked at the school, right before it reached its full prominence in the 1820s, when Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Franklin Pierce attended.[1]

He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1810,[2] and was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1813.[3]

Personal life
Appleton's daughter, Jane Pierce with her last surviving son, Benjamin Pierce, who died in 1853 in a train crash, two months before his father was sworn into office as president.

He married Elizabeth Means (1779–1844). Elizabeth was the daughter of Stewartstown, County Tyrone, Ireland born Robert Means (1742–1823) and Mary McGregor (1752–1838).[4] His wife's sister, Mary Means (1777–1858), was married to Jeremiah Mason on November 6, 1799. Together, Jesse and Elizabeth were the parents of five children who survived through infancy, including:

  • Mary Means Appleton (1801–1883), who married John Aiken (1797–1867)
  • Frances Appleton (1804–1839), who married famed Bowdoin professor Alpheus Spring Packard, Sr. (1798–1884) who edited The Works of Rev. Jesse Appleton, D.D., with a Memoir of His Life and Character in 1837.
  • Jane Means Appleton (1806–1863), who would become First Lady to President Franklin Pierce on November 19, 1834.[5]
  • William Appleton (1808–1830), who died unmarried.
  • John Appleton (1814–1817), who died young.

Appleton died on November 12, 1819 in Brunswick, Maine. He is interred at Pine Grove Cemetery in Brunswick.[6]

Descendants

Through his daughter Mary, he was the grandfather of William Appleton Aiken (1833–1929), who in 1861 married Eliza Coit Buckingham (1838–1924), and Mary Appleton Aiken, who in 1868 married Francis H. Snow (1840–1908), a professor and chancellor of the University of Kansas who became prominent through the discovery of a fungus fatal to chinch bugs and its propagation and distribution.[1]

Through his daughter Frances, he was the grandfather of four boys and one girl, including William Alfred Packard (1830-1909), an 1851 alumnus of Bowdoin, Alpheus Spring Packard Jr. (1839–1905), a Civil War surgeon, entomologist who corresponded with Charles Darwin, Charles A. Packard, George Packard, and Frances Appleton Packard.[7]

Through his daughter Jane, he was the grandfather of Franklin Pierce, Jr. (1836–1836), who died young, Franklin "Frank" Robert Pierce (1839–1843), who died at age four from epidemic typhus, and Benjamin Pierce (1841–1853), who died two months before Pierce's inauguration as president when the passenger car of the train they were traveling in broke loose and rolled down an embankment.[8]

References
Notes
  1. "Appleton-Aiken family papers 1812-1900". quod.lib.umich.edu. Manuscripts Division William L. Clements Library. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  2. "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  3. American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
  4. Daniel F. Secomb, History of the Town of Amherst (1883), p. 689
  5. Marquis Who's Who, Inc. Who Was Who in American History, the Military. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1975. P. 14 ISBN 0837932017 OCLC 657162692
  6. "Pine Grove Cemetery Walking Tour" (PDF). Pejescot Historical Society. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  7. Cleaveland, Nehemiah; Packard, Alpheus S. (1882). History of Bowdoin College: with biographical sketches of its graduates from 1806 to 1879, inclusive. J.R. Osgood & Co.
  8. "First Lady - Jane Pierce | C-SPAN First Ladies: Influence & Image". firstladies.c-span.org. C-SPAN. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
Sources
Preceded by
Joseph McKeen		 President of Bowdoin College
1807–19		 Succeeded by
William Allen
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