Jesse Appleton

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]

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]

Notes

Sources

• "Appleton, Jesse" . The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
• "Appleton, Jesse" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900.
•  "Appleton, Jesse". The Biographical Dictionary of America. Vol. 1. 1906. p. 131.

• Jesse Appleton at Find a Grave
• Jesse Appleton Collection Archived 2008-09-05 at the Wayback Machine at Bowdoin Library (with biographical information)
• Jesse Appleton, Lectures, delivered at Bowdoin college, and occasional sermons, 1822 (at Google Books)
• Jesse Appleton, An address, delivered before the Massachusetts Society for Suppressing Intemperance: at their anniversary meeting, May 31, 1816, 1816.