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Franklin Pierce

FRANKLIN PIERCE was born at Hillsborough, N. H., on the 23d of November, 1804. He was the fourth son of Benjamin Pierce, a brave soldier of the war of independence, a governor of New Hampshire, and till his death a leading man in the Granite State. For several years, Franklin attended school at Hancock and Traverstown. He then attended Exeter Academy, where he completed his preparatory studies, and at the age of sixteen he entered Bowdoin College. Among his classmates were Calvin E. Stowe (since Rev. Dr. Stowe), and others who have since become highly distinguished. During his first two years at college, Franklin was not a studious scholar, being rather given to levity and social amusement. But he was popular among the collegians. When his college course was about half finished, he was induced to teach a district school at Hebron, in Maine, for three months, it being very difficult to obtain any one to fill the situation. In 1824, Mr. Pierce took his degree at college, and then devoted himself to the study of law in the offices successively of Hon. Edmund Parker, at Amherst, Hon. Levi Woodbury, at Portsmouth, Mass. In 1827, he was admitted to the bar, and he began the practice of the law in Hillsborough.