Jane Means Appleton Pierce by Covell Ann;

Author:Covell, Ann;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hamilton Books
Published: 2013-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Jane Means Appleton Pierce

Childhood, Adolescence and Early Womanhood

Jane was born in 1806 in Hampton, where her father, Jesse Appleton, was the pastor. Some months following her birth, the family moved to Brunswick, Maine, where Jesse had assumed his role as President of Bowdoin College. She was obviously too young to remember the Hampton life, though her sisters, Mary and Frances, had had the benefit of the more sedate life than Brunswick provided, with the added advantage of quality time with their father. Life at Bowdoin was at a much faster pace, with Jesse finding his time taken up more and more with the college and students. Thus, time with his daughters was curtailed, and the two older girls became close companions, as they learned to adapt to the new situation; Jane rarely received the enjoyment of a playful father during her infancy. Indeed, Jesse became more remote, as did their mother to some extent as her role as the college president’s wife took up more and more time.

While the older girls would have given some attention to their baby sister, she was too young at that time to join in their play, and as they grew and began education, Jane would not have fitted in with their new status. One can easily imagine that Jane, though cherished and nurtured, was largely left to her own play as an infant, until she herself reached an age when education could begin. By this time, however, her sisters were at another developmental level, and so it went on—the younger child appearing to just miss out on the companionship that Mary and Frances had with each other. Inevitably, Jane grew up as a shy little soul but when her brother, William, was born when she was almost three years old, she immediately adored him, and never stopped doing so. She was also devoted to her younger brother, Robert, born when she was four. In those days, boys tended to receive a higher educational program than that of their sisters, and Jane found herself the middle child of a family. Here was a little girl who may have felt unsure of herself in the presence of two effervescent, older sisters on the one side, and two brothers on the other, at the same time suffering fragile health which manifested throughout her life. Perhaps this was the period when Jane’s introverted nature was cultivated!

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