Jesse Appleton

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).

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

After graduating from Dartmouth, Appleton 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.

He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1810,{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|accessdate=19 April 2011}} and was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1813.[http://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlista American Antiquarian Society Members Directory]

File:First ladies-pierce.jpg, 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).Daniel F. Secomb, History of the Town of Amherst (1883), p. 689 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.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}}
• 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.{{cite web|url=http://pejepscothistorical.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/PGC-Walking-Tour-Booklet-REVISED.pdf|title=Pine Grove Cemetery Walking Tour|publisher=Pejescot Historical Society|accessdate=30 March 2017}}

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.{{cite web|title=Appleton-Aiken family papers 1812-1900|url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsmss/umich-wcl-M-2216app?view=text|website=quod.lib.umich.edu|publisher=Manuscripts Division William L. Clements Library|accessdate=17 December 2017}}

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.{{cite book|last1=Cleaveland|first1=Nehemiah|last2=Packard|first2=Alpheus S.|title=History of Bowdoin College: with biographical sketches of its graduates from 1806 to 1879, inclusive|date=1882|publisher=J.R. Osgood & Co.|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofbowdoin00clea#page/188/mode/2up}}

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.{{cite web|title=First Lady - Jane Pierce {{!}} C-SPAN First Ladies: Influence & Image|url=http://firstladies.c-span.org/FirstLady/16/Jane-Pierce.aspx|website=firstladies.c-span.org|publisher=C-SPAN|accessdate=17 December 2017}}

;Notes

{{Reflist|30em}}

;Sources

• {{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Appleton, Jesse |short=x}}
• {{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Appleton, Jesse|year=1900 |notaref=x |short=x}}
• {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Appleton, Jesse |volume= 1 |page= 131 |short=1}}

• {{findagrave|46462366}}
• [http://library.bowdoin.edu/arch/mss/jag.shtml Jesse Appleton Collection] at Bowdoin Library (with biographical information)
• Jesse Appleton, [https://books.google.com/books?id=F90OAAAAIAAJ Lectures, delivered at Bowdoin college, and occasional sermons], 1822 (at Google Books)
• [http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8801075 Jesse Appleton, An address, delivered before the Massachusetts Society for Suppressing Intemperance: at their anniversary meeting, May 31, 1816, 1816.]

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{{succession box|title=President of Bowdoin College|before=Joseph McKeen|after=William Allen|years=1807–19}}

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{{Bowdoin College presidents}}

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Category:1772 births

Category:1819 deaths

Category:Appleton family

Category:People from colonial New Hampshire

Category:People from New Ipswich, New Hampshire

Category:Dartmouth College alumni

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:Presidents of Bowdoin College

Category:Burials at Pine Grove Cemetery (Brunswick, Maine)