Jane Pierce was the wife of 14th U.S. President Franklin Pierce, and served as First Lady of the United States from 1853 to 1857.
Background
Jane Pierce was born on March 12, 1806, in Hampton, New Hampshire. After the death of her father, who had served as president of Bowdoin College not long before Franklin enrolled there, she moved at age 13 into the mansion of her wealthy maternal grandparents in Amherst.
Education
Taught at home, but early showed an aptitude for music (piano) making one teacher wish she would pursue a musical career. Music was something she did not pursue in later life. Her reading tended to religious works rarely does she mention current authors in her letters. Her handwriting was poor later in life, making her letters extremely hard to read and to transcribe.
Career
Jane Pierce never liked her social position when her husband became President, but 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. Mrs. Robert E. 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."
Religion
Jane had a religious upbringing which continued after her father (father was a Congregationalist minister) died in 1819 and she moved into her maternal grandparent’s home in Amherst, New Hampshire.
Views
When she first heard her husband, Franklin Pierce, had received his party's nomination for president, Jane Pierce fainted. Pious, retiring and frail, Mrs. Pierce detested Washington, and she had spent much of her adult life trying to persuade her husband to retire from politics.
It is quite likely that no other American first Lady was more reluctunt to assume her duties than the minister's daughter. Her distaste for those official duties was made worse by the tragic death of her eleven-year-old son just weeks before her husband inauguration.
Personality
Jane Pierce would never be able to accept her husband’s political career or to mingle easily in society. She hated Washington, but in reading her early letters to her in-laws and to her mother, she did at least attempt to join with her husband in the social duties of a Congressman’s wife. The birth and death of her children took a heavy toll on a character not resilient to life’s demands. The most important factor of Jane Piece’s character was her need to lean on others, hence the importance of her aunt through marriage, Abigail Kent Means and most importantly her oldest sister, Mary Appleton Aiken. They did what they could to keep Jane Pierce on as "even a keel" as much as was possible. The time of her tenure in the White House, her gloom and depressions were so acute, permanent and evident to all that Nathaniel Hawthorne, a famous author of that time, would refer to her as "that death’s head" in the White House. Her later years would see her somewhat improve. The return to her home however in New Hampshire, with its painful memories, saw a return of her depression.
Quotes from others about the person
Mrs. Robert E. Lee: "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."