Jane M. Pierce

This engraving of First Lady Jane Means Appleton Pierce was completed by John Chester Buttre in 1886. As the daughter of a Congregationalist minister, Mrs. Pierce discouraged her husband's political ambitions, fainting at the news he was selected as the Democratic nominee for president. During her husband's years in office from March 4, 1853 to March 4, 1857, Mrs. Pierce had to exert herself to meet the social obligations of a first lady. A devout woman, she suffered heavily from the deaths of all three of her children including her son Benjamin, who was killed in a train accident just prior to his father's inauguration.