Governor Benjamin Pierce - New Hampshire Historical Society

Governor Benjamin Pierce (1757–1839), father of United States President Franklin Pierce; oil on canvas, signed and dated by Henry 

Cheever Pratt (1803–80), 1829. “His excellency Governor Pierce, is [a] revolutionary hero, about seventy years of age; a tall, noble 

figure, and one of the most benevolent men of the age. He is active and vigorous, affable in his manners . . . . The man who shouldered 

his musket at Bunker’s hill, has lived to reap the honors due to his virtue.” (Anne Royall, 1828) New Hampshire Historical Society.

7 

Inheriting the Revolution: Benjamin Pierce’s World, Ideals, and Legacy 

Wesley G. Balla 

Contemporary Americans often view their 

history as fixed and immutable, an endless 

parade of people and events marching 

forward across time and space. Nineteenth-century 

letters, diaries, account books, and newspapers 

surviving in New Hampshire indicate that, in reality, 

lives then as now were in constant flux, built on a 

myriad of relationships and influences. Ties of family 

and business, religious beliefs and politics, together 

with memories of events and people, great and ordinary, 

have helped shape identities and fortunes. Chief 

among the influences on Franklin Pierce’s personality 

and values were those of his father Benjamin, one 

of the leaders of the revolutionary generation in 

New Hampshire. 

“The Glorious Principles of Independence” 

On a cold Christmas Day in 1824, General 

Benjamin Pierce hosted twenty-one veterans of the 

Revolutionary War at a dinner in his commodious 

tavern situated on the turnpike in the Lower Village 

of Hillsborough, New Hampshire. Inspired by the 

Marquis de Lafayette’s visits to the United States in 

1824 and 1825 in celebration of the fiftieth 

anniversary of the nation’s founding, General Pierce 

invited his surviving comrades in the town of 

Hillsborough to join him in honoring the heroes, 

events, and ideals of the American Revolution. 

Although a few Hillsborough veterans were in their 

eighties, most were in their sixties and seventies when 

they gathered at the Pierce home that day. At 11:00 

WESLEY G. BALLA is director of collections and 

exhibitions at the New Hampshire Historical Society and 

curator of “Franklin Pierce: Defining Democracy in 

America,” on view at the Society’s Tuck Library from 

July 2004 to May 2005. 

in the morning, after the group had assembled, 

General Pierce made a short, emotional address 

welcoming his guests and encouraging them to 

recount the feats and perils they had faced in fighting 

the British. Eighty-nine-year-old Ammi Andrews 

and eighty-three-year-old John McColley—the two 

oldest veterans present—were unanimously elected 

president and vice president of the day as a mark of 

respect and veneration. The meeting was called to 

order and, after Congregational minister Rev. John 

Lawton offered a prayer of blessing, the assembled 

veterans related a variety of anecdotes about their 

revolutionary service. 1 

At 1:30, the group moved to the dining room 

where they consumed a hearty dinner punctuated by 

a succession of thirteen toasts, one for each of the 

original states of the Union. The first nine toasts 

honored the memory of George Washington and the 

heroes, as well as the many hard-won battles, of the 

Revolution. In contrast, the final four toasts looked 

to the future rather than the past, calling for the 

country’s leaders to be patriotic and honest in the 

face of adversity, for “National Alliances” never “to 

destroy the liberty and happiness of man,” and for 

the union of the states to be preserved in the face 

of “strong policy or foolish sectional feelings.” As 

customary at public gatherings, the spirited exchange 

continued with twelve more voluntary toasts. Four of 

these praised the United States military forces and 

their success against the British during the recent 

War of 1812. The group joined in honoring the 

Marquis de Lafayette and the Greeks struggling for 

liberty in Europe. Near the end of the proceedings, 

the youngest veteran, fifty-nine-year-old Nathaniel 

Johnston rose to toast his revolutionary comrades 

across the nation. Johnston proclaimed them, “first

8 Historical New Hampshire 

in dignity, first among heroes in political rights.” 

Mindful of the importance of their democratic 

experiment, he concluded with the solemn 

injunction, “may they continue firm examples of the 

patriotic virtues, and our children maintain the 

glorious principles of independence.” 2 

The festivities concluded with General Pierce 

addressing his old comrades once more. Wishing his 

guests well, Pierce then parted the mists of time with 

stirring memories of the war, which he described 

eloquently as “the cause so expensive in its influence 

and so glorious in its termination.” He went on to 

praise God for preserving all present—though with 

“minds and bodies infirm”—to see the happiness and 

prosperity that had emerged within fifty years from 

that struggle. General Pierce offered thanks for those 

present to their Creator for enabling them “to see our 

beloved country so rapidly increase in population 

[and] to see the progress of the arts and sciences of 

agriculture of commerce and manufactures.” Sadly, it 

would not be long before these good and faithful soldiers 

would join General Washington and their war 

comrades in death. 3 

The meeting of the revolutionary heroes that day 

at Pierce’s tavern was more than an exercise in 

honoring the dead. In a true embodiment of 

patriotism, the veterans focused their listeners’ 

attention on both the present and the future as they 

sought to keep the spirit of the Revolution alive and 

to apply its principles in a rapidly changing world. 4 

Laying Down the Plough 

Born on December 25, 1757, Benjamin Pierce was 

the seventh of ten children of Benjamin Pierce and 

Elizabeth Merrill of Chelmsford, Massachusetts. 

Young Benjamin’s father, a farmer, died when 

Benjamin was age six, leaving him in the care of his 

uncle Robert Pierce, also a Chelmsford farmer. 

Benjamin’s father left a modest estate of land, 

buildings, clothes, furniture, a few farm animals, and 

notes valued at 153 pounds, 3 shillings, and 4 pence. 

The estate had approximately 700 pounds in debts. 

In need of a provider, Benjamin’s mother remarried. 

On January 3, 1769, she became the wife of another 

Chelmsford farmer, Oliver Bowers. On December 

18, 1770, twelve-year-old Benjamin chose his cousin 

William Pierce as his legal guardian until he reached 

twenty-one. William, whose occupation was given as 

“Gentleman,” was the son of Benjamin’s uncle 

Robert. Under his relatives’ care, Benjamin grew up 

among modest farmers on the northern fringes of 

New England settlement. When not working in the 

fields and practicing farming, he attended school 

approximately three weeks each year, learning to 

read, write, and cypher. 5 

On April 18, 1775, while plowing a field in 

Chelmsford, the seventeen-year-old Pierce heard that 

British troops had fired upon Americans in nearby 

Lexington, killing eight men. Displaying the 

decisiveness that was to become the hallmark of his 

later political career, Pierce, according to his own 

memoir, “stepped between the cattle, dropped the 

chains from the plough, and without ceremony 

shouldered my uncle’s fowling piece, swung the 

bullet-pouch and powder-horn and hastened to the 

place where the first blood had been spilled.” Once 

there, however, “finding the enemy had retired, I 

pursued my way towards Boston, but was not able to 

overtake them till they had effected their retreat to 

the garrison.” 6 

On June 17, Pierce took part in the Battle of 

Bunker Hill (also known as Breeds’ Hill). He later 

recalled proudly that he was “at Dorchester Heights, 

when the British evacuated Boston, and entered 

the city with the American army.” Pierce’s military 

involvement extended from 1775 to 1784. He was 

involved mostly with the campaigns in New York, 

serving at Ticonderoga, Fort Stanwix, and Bemis 

Heights. He was among those “quartered for the 

winter with the continental army” at Valley Forge 

from 1777 to 1778. Later stationed at White Plains 

and West Point, he served “in the regiments that 

went with Gen Washington to take possession of 

New York” at the close of the war. 7

Benjamin Pierce’s World 9 

The Revolution, which brought profound change 

to every corner of American society, had created a 

vocal and assertive citizenry. Republican emphasis on 

the virtues of talent and merit unleashed men’s desire 

for social and economic advancement. Yet, when 

Lieutenant Pierce and other soldiers returned to their 

rural homes following years of service in 

the Continental Army, they faced age-old challenges 

of earning a livelihood through farming. Like 

generations before him, Pierce turned to the frontier 

where land was cheap yet provided a foundation for 

building family and community. 8 

In 1785, Pierce found employment “as an agent to 

explore the lands” in present-day Stoddard, New 

Hampshire, then owned by the heirs of Col. 

Sampson Stoddard, Esq. (1709–77), a wealthy 

Chelmsford merchant and politician. Through 

royal grants and purchases, the Stoddard family 

had title to eighty-thousand acres in Acworth, 

Dublin, Fitzwilliam, Goffstown, Jaffrey, Rindge, and 

Stoddard, which they hoped to develop or sell to 

land-hungry farmers pressing northward. 9 

In the spring of 1786, Pierce joined the steady 

stream of New England farmers moving northward 

“A Correct View of the Late Battle at Charlestown June 17 th 1775,” engraved by Robert Aitken (1734–1802) of Philadelphia and published in 

the Pennsylvania Magazine, September 1775. When news of the Battle of Lexington reached young Benjamin Pierce, he laid down his plough, 

headed for Boston, and joined the militia. He later recorded: “June 17 th I was at the battle on Breed’s Hill.” Courtesy of the American 

Antiquarian Society.


from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. 

While exploring the Stoddard lands in the wilds 

of Hillsborough County, he had discovered an 

undeveloped, fifty-acre tract on the northwest branch 

of the Contoocook River and, before returning to 

Chelmsford, he purchased it. That spring, he hauled 

a supply of provisions to Hillsborough and, together 

with a friend with whom he had served in the 

Continental Army, he moved into the log hut built 

by the land’s previous owner. The two men probably 

spent the rest of the year cutting and clearing away 

trees and brush and beginning to plant crops. 10 

Building Family and Community 

Family was at the center of society and life in 

post-revolutionary New Hampshire. Often, families 

moved, either together or consecutively, from 

established northern Massachusetts towns to new 

communities in New Hampshire. They typically 

maintained strong connections with their former 

town, on which they patterned their settlement and 

its institutions. 

Within a year of settling in Hillsborough, 

Benjamin Pierce had started a family. Pierce married 

Elizabeth, the daughter of Isaac and Lucy (Perkins) 

Andrews. Elizabeth’s father, Isaac, who had settled on 

a farm on Hillsborough’s Bible Hill in 1765, was a 

town selectman, town clerk, and one of the founders 

of the Congregational Church. On August 13, 1788, 

however, Elizabeth died, four days after giving birth 

to the couple’s only child, a daughter also named 

Elizabeth. Faced with raising an infant and keeping a 

household, Benjamin soon remarried. On February 

1, 1790, Anna Kendrick, the youngest daughter of 

farmer Benjamin and Sarah (Harris) Kendrick of 

Amherst, became his wife. Benjamin Kendrick 

(1723–1812) had served as town moderator and 

leader of the Congregational Church, since 

settling in Amherst in 1770. 11 

Marriage into the Kendrick family extended 

Pierce’s ties to Amherst, the shire town of 

Hillsborough County. Links to his hometown in 

Massachusetts also remained strong. His younger 

brother Merrill (1764–1816) followed him to New 

Hampshire, where he, too, settled in Hillsborough. 

Pierce’s extended family eventually stretched from 

Hillsborough across northern New England. The 

marriage of each member of his family further broadened 

the network of his relatives and acquaintances. 12 

With other settlers, Pierce and his family created 

community organizations to serve their social, 

economic, and political needs, forging a civic life 

in Hillsborough similar to what they had known 

previously. A greater decentralization of cultural 

authority, new ideas about equality, and a new rhetoric 

of liberty—based on the ideals of the American 

Revolution—emerged, however, as important characteristics 

in the northern New England settlement. 

Anna Kendrick Pierce (1768–1838), oil on wood panel, attributed 

to Zedekiah Belknap (1781–1858), c. 1815. In the years following 

the war, Benjamin Pierce returned to farming, settled in 

Hillsborough, and established a family. His second wife, Franklin’s 

mother, was a member of the Kendrick family of Amherst, the 

Hillsborough County seat. From the collections of The Henry Ford.


The creation of a new nation was nurturing cultural 

change in New England, eroding the power of the 

church and its leaders, for example. Generations of 

New Englanders had been born, spent their lives, 

and died in a society ruled by the Congregational 

Church. Democratic beliefs and revolutionary 

spirit, however, permeated northern New England 

society, which had been created largely by farmers 

and artisans. Fanned by evangelical fervor, plainspoken 

Methodists and Baptists found a home on the fluid 

frontier of northern New England. Although the 

Congregational Church was not formally disestablished 

in New Hampshire until the passage of the 

Toleration Act by the state legislature in 1819, a 

gradual movement toward religious liberty had been 

underway since the 1790s. 13 

Unpretentious and genuine expressions of faith 

found support among the Pierces and other members 

of their rural community. In 1813, when the First 

Baptist Society was organized in Hillsborough, the 

Pierces were among its early members. Services were 

held in private homes, schoolhouses, and barns 

until the congregation grew sufficiently to erect a 

meetinghouse. In 1823, Benjamin Pierce gave land 

near his home to the Baptist Society for a meeting 

house and burying ground. He contributed to the 

other Christian denominations in his town as well. 14 

In building new communities, townsmen not only 

borrowed from their pasts but also looked to the 

present and to the future. Some institutions they 

founded were intended to ensure that residents could 

participate fully in the new republic. An informed 

citizenry needed access to knowledge and education. 

In 1797, with this in mind, Benjamin Pierce joined 

Jonathan Barnes, James Eaton, and William Taggart 

in petitioning the state legislature to form a “social 

Library” in Hillsborough. On December 16, 1797, 

the proprietors of the newly incorporated library 

were authorized to “receive subscriptions grants and 

donations of personal Estate,” so that they could 

begin to purchase books and establish a library. For 

more than twenty years, the library provided a broad 

range of reading matter not otherwise available to the 

farming families of Hillsborough. On the library 

shelves, community members found an eclectic 

mixture of books, tracts, and magazines published in 

Europe and America. 15 

The library collection was selected with the goal 

not only of the dissemination of knowledge, but also 

the cultivation of virtue, reflecting the general 

recognition at this time of the importance of nurturing 

a virtuous, patriotic, and informed citizenry. The 

library’s offerings included Doddridge’s Sermons, 

educating readers to Christian moral and religious 

values; Morse’s Geography, acquainting farmers with 

the size and character of the developing United 

States; Benjamin Franklin’s Works inspiring young 

readers with the importance of hard work and 

independent thought; and the fictional Arabian 

Nights Entertainment, introducing townspeople to 

the mysteries of faraway lands. A Jeffersonian, Pierce 

believed that education was vital to developing a 

strong national economy based on farming and 

commerce, all key ingredients in the success of a free 

republic. A member of the Hillsborough County 

Agricultural Society, the goal of which was to promote 

scientific farming and increased productivity, Pierce 

enthusiastically participated in the organization’s 

annual cattle show and fair. 16 

A Public House and Public Life 

In 1804, having lived in Hillsborough for nearly 

two decades, Benjamin Pierce moved his family 

into an elegant, two-story, wood-framed house, 

standing on a gentle rise of land along the 

Second New Hampshire Turnpike in what would 

become known as Hillsborough Lower Village. 

Chartered by the state in 1799, the Second New 

Hampshire Turnpike connected Claremont, on the 

Connecticut River, via the Contoocook River 

valley with Amherst, where it intersected the 

Middlesex Turnpike leading to Boston. People, 

produce, and goods moved along this and other 

turnpikes to markets in the seaport cities of 

Portsmouth and Boston while providing new 

communication networks for settlers. 17


Benjamin Pierce homestead and tavern, Hillsborough Lower Village, built 1804; daguerreotype by James A. Cutting (1813–67), of 

Boston, which served as the basis for a popular print of the president’s childhood home, lithographed in 1852 by Nathaniel Currier. 

People from all walks of life passed through the Pierce tavern, an important center in the social, economic, and political life of the 

community. Courtesy of the Pierce Brigade. 

Pierce supplemented his livelihood by feeding 

and refreshing travelers on the turnpike as well as 

his neighbors who had formed a small settlement 

of twenty houses in the vicinity of the tavern. 

Pierce’s was one of a dozen public houses across 

Hillsborough strategically located at crossroads. 

Town selectmen granted taverns licenses to sell 

drink. As early as 1795, Pierce had obtained such 

a license. 18 

Across rural America in the early nineteenth 

century, taverns like Pierce’s were a vital part of 

community life. They became neighborhood 

centers for informal socializing, for the exchange 

of information and ideas, for community meetings, 

and for political activity. Taverns served as community 

forums, encouraging participation in local and 

state politics. With the decline of a hierarchical society 

in late-eighteenth-century America, it became 

necessary for candidates to appeal directly to voters, 

and the tavern owner proved uniquely qualified to 

help candidates do this. The consumption of drink 

often facilitated communication between elected 

officials and their constituents, as candidates treated 

tavern patrons to food and drink at election time. 19 

In addition to the village regulars, people 

passing through Hillsborough along the turnpike 

stopped for refreshment at General Pierce’s tavern. 

One Dartmouth College student later recalled 

spending a pleasant evening “agreeably in conversation 

with the General’s daughters” before catching a 

stage to his home in Massachusetts. Some of the tavern 

guests were drawn as much by the innkeeper’s


celebrity as a revolutionary soldier and political 

leader as by the hospitality he offered. As Pierce 

became increasingly prominent in state politics, the 

leaders of the Democratic Party frequently came to 

the hostelry to consult with the old patriot on issues 

of the day. Even political opponents, such as the 

great orator Daniel Webster, stopped at the tavern to 

seek General Pierce’s counsel and a drink. 20 

A tavern keeper’s involvement in extending credit 

and disseminating news made him influential in 

local affairs. Taverns played a vital role in facilitating 

informal exchange of information within rural 

communities throughout New England. Even the 

most illiterate or poor could hear and discuss the 

news of the day at the tavern. At the same time, 

taverns became important in the distribution of 

written communications as regular mail service 

extended inland. 21 

On April 1, 1803, in response to a petition from 

town residents, the United States government 

created a post office at Lower Village and, on July 8, 

1818, Benjamin Pierce received a federal patronage 

appointment as postmaster of Hillsborough. Farmers 

and artisans from across the town traveled to the tavern 

to collect or mail letters as well as to learn the latest 

news and exchange ideas. Anna Pierce and her 

children no doubt assisted the busy tavern 

keeper in distributing letters and collecting postage. 

In the fall of 1824, the Pierces’ son Franklin, who 

had just graduated from Bowdoin College and was 

studying law under local attorney John Bingham, 

earned a small but steady income assisting his father 

in his postmaster duties. 22 

All Politics is Local 

While the tavern clearly helped his political career, 

Benjamin Pierce’s political education probably 

began much earlier in his life, in the Chelmsford 

meetinghouse where the town’s men gathered on 

the first Tuesday of March each year to elect 

officials and decide the community’s business. 

Pierce’s revolutionary experiences also had a strong 

impact on his commitment to public service. As 

witness to the struggle on battlefields against the 

British and inspired ever afterwards by the ideals of 

freedom, Pierce saw himself as a patriot defending 

the hard-won liberties of farmers from the greed of 

aristocrats determined to subvert the Republic. 

Pierce arrived in Hillsborough during a turbulent 

time in the young lives of the state and the nation. As 

an ambitious man who aspired to greater things for 

himself, his family, and his country, Pierce became 

involved in the struggles of post-revolutionary politics. 

Fueled by disagreement over issues of religious 

liberty, of threats to trade by the English and French, 

and of the proper use of state funds, the adherents of 

two political factions coalesced into parties by the 

late 1790s, becoming known as Federalists and 

Jeffersonian Republicans. 23 

In the meantime, the people of Hillsborough did 

not hesitate to call on the talented newcomer from 

Chelmsford to serve in town office. Like his fatherin-law 

before him and like two sons later on, Pierce 

served many years as town moderator. Between 1792 

and 1813, on the second Tuesday of March and the 

first Tuesday in November each year, he presided 

eighteen times over the men gathered at the meeting 

house to conduct town business and elect officials. 24 

A popular community leader, Pierce was elected 

to the state legislature in 1789 by the towns of 

Henniker and Hillsborough. He continued to 

represent the latter in Concord for thirteen years. 

The times were turbulent, and citizens of the young 

republic—plagued by debt, economic depression, 

and political turmoil—turned to their representatives 

for help. In 1791, Pierce served as a member of the 

state constitutional convention. In 1803, he was 

elected councilor for Hillsborough County, serving 

in that office for five years. 25 

In 1809, Governor John Langdon appointed Pierce 

sheriff of Hillsborough County. As sheriff, he became 

an officer of the court, traveling from Amherst across 

Hillsborough County, serving writs, securing 

prisoners, and maintaining order. During the first 

decade of the nineteenth century, Pierce became a 

strong proponent of Jeffersonian Republicanism. He


was representative of his rural, inland constituency in 

his outspoken opposition to the Federalists and his 

promotion of war with Great Britain. Pierce held the 

office of sheriff until 1813 when he was removed for 

refusal to carry out an order of the Federalist 

dominated Supreme Judicial Court. 26 

Commenting on this episode, Pierce wrote: “in 

1813, (I) was removed by an address from both 

Houses of the Legislature, to make room for Israel 

Kelly, whose politicks were better suited to the times: 

—it was the reign (of ) Terror. John T. Gilman was 

Governor of the State at the time. During this 

period, no effort was spared by the Federalists to ruin 

every prominent Democrat that dared oppose 

them.” According to Pierce, Federalist judges used 

elaborate means, even changing laws, in order to ruin 

himself and other Republicans. 27 

Pierce did not remain out of office long. In 

response to alleged Federalist manipulation, enraged 

Hillsborough County voters re-elected Pierce to a 

seat on the General Council in 1814, and returned 

him annually for the next five years. When the 

Republicans gained control of the governorship 

again in 1818, William Plumer reappointed Pierce 

sheriff of Hillsborough County. A first-hand witness 

to the cruelty of state laws upholding imprisonment 

for debt and religious intolerance, Pierce became a 

strong advocate of economic and religious freedom 

for all people. He secured his position as a leader of 

the Republicans in New Hampshire, remaining as 

sheriff until 1827. 28 

The War of 1812 and the celebrations surrounding 

the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the United 

States of America fanned the flames of nationalism. 

In 1826, the leaders of the emerging Democratic 

Party of Andrew Jackson selected as their candidate 

for governor Benjamin Pierce, “the last hero of the 

Revolution,” who had strong support among the 

voters of southwestern New Hampshire’s farming 

communities. Pierce lost the election to Dr. David L. 

Morrill (1772–1849) of Goffstown, an “Adams” 

Republican who won 17,679 out of 29,966 votes 

New Hampshire State House, 

Concord, drawn and engraved 

by Abel Bowen (1790–1850) 

of Portsmouth and Boston; 

published in A Gazetteer of 

the State of New-Hampshire 

by John Farmer and Jacob B. 

Moore, 1823. Benjamin Pierce’s 

long career of political service 

culminated in 1827 in his election 

as the first Jacksonian 

Democratic governor of the state.


cast, with support from the Federalists. The Democrats 

led by Isaac Hill (1788–1851) went to work, laying 

the groundwork for the 1827 election. The 

Democratic members of the state legislature 

nominated Pierce as their candidate for governor at 

the convention held in Concord on June 20, 1826. 

The Adams followers temporarily reunited with the 

Jacksonians to support Pierce in the March 1827 

election. Pierce won 23,695 out of 27,411 votes cast 

in the election. 29 

As the first Jacksonian Democratic governor of 

New Hampshire, Pierce came to Concord wearing a 

tricorn hat, the symbol of his revolutionary heritage. 

As Jacksonian Democrats and Adams Republicans 

in the state legislature struggled for control of 

government, Pierce invoked the memory of the 

founding fathers in his June 1827 message to the 

legislature, calling for New Hampshire residents to 

preserve the “social virtues” of justice, moderation, 

temperance, industry, and frugality necessary to 

preserving liberty and good government. He urged 

representatives to improve public education through 

the uniform distribution of state funds to local 

public schools, to support the state militia over a 

large standing army, and to promote economic 

development. 30 

In 1828, the “Jackson” Democrat Pierce narrowly 

failed to win re-election, receiving only 18,672 

compared to 21,149 votes cast for National 

Republican John Bell (1765–1836) of Chester. In 

this election, Adams Republicans ran Bell as a 

prelude to the fall campaign for the presidency 

between Jackson and Adams. Although Pierce lost 

the election, rural farming communities in central 

and western New Hampshire remained firm 

supporters of the governor. He easily carried 

Hillsborough, with 227 votes in comparison to 90 

for his opponent. In the election of 1829, with 

Jackson now President, Democrats, led by Isaac Hill 

and Levi Woodbury (1789–1851), carried the state 

against National Republicans and Federalists. 

Benjamin Pierce was returned to the governorship 

with 22,615 to 19,583 votes for John Bell. 31 

As Governor Pierce addressed the state legislature 

on June 6, 1829, he took particular pride in his son 

Franklin, who had been elected a representative from 

Hillsborough as a Democrat and was sitting in the 

audience. In a ringing statement of republican 

principles, the old general urged legislators to put 

aside personal ambition and cooperate to support 

legislation promoting commerce between the 

“seaboard and the interior,” to avoid extravagance 

and “return to republican simplicity,” to support 

common free schools as the foundation of an 

informed electorate, and to secure “full and 

impartial” administration of justice. 32 

The Citizen Soldier 

Friend and political supporter Isaac Hill recalled that 

Benjamin Pierce was a lifelong advocate for the militia. 

As Hill explained, “from principle, believing it to be the 

only sure arm of defence: he patronized and encouraged 

its continued organization and discipline throughout 

life.” Founding father George Washington created 

the ideal of the citizen soldier. For Americans, the 

ideal of military service as necessary to secure a free 

people and as espoused by Washington became 

the model of virtue in the young republic. In postrevolutionary 

America, periodic service in militia 

companies offered every white man between twentyone 

and forty-nine years of age the opportunity to 

demonstrate his patriotism and citizenship. 33 

While still working to clear his farm in the 

autumn of 1786, Pierce received an appointment 

as brigade major of the Hillsborough County militia 

from the new state’s president, John Sullivan. A seasoned 

soldier with nine years of military experience 

in the Massachusetts militia and the Continental 

Army, Pierce was skilled in handling, training, and 

disciplining men. A natural leader, he was an ideal 

candidate to help build the state’s military defenses. 

Equally important, militia service presented an 

opportunity for honor and advancement in a fluid 

society. In 1796, Pierce was appointed lieutenant 

colonel and commandant of the twenty-sixth 

regiment of the state militia. All able-bodied men


“The Militia Muster,” watercolor on paper, by David Claypoole Johnston (1799–1865), 1828. “Gen. P[ierce] was attached to the militia 

from principle, believing it to be the only sure arm of defence. He was of those who distrust standing armies as the principal reliance, believing 

they might be used here as they have been in other countries as instruments in the hands of arbitrary power to destroy the liberties of the 

people.” ( Farmer’s Monthly Visitor, April 15, 1839) Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society. 

from the towns of Antrim, Bennington, Deering, 

Francestown, Greenfield, Hancock, Henniker, 

Hillsborough, Lyndeborough, and Windsor served 

in the regiment’s two battalions. 34 

The fragility of the new nation was never far 

from the minds of the revolutionary generation. As 

early as 1793, America was caught in the middle of 

a succession of wars between France and Great 

Britain for dominance of Atlantic maritime trade. 

In 1798, the United States government, fearing war 

and invasion by France, attempted to raise an army 

of thirty thousand troops. On behalf of the 

government, Federalist Congressman William Gordon 

(1763–1802), an old acquaintance, offered Pierce an 

appointment as colonel in the United States Army. 

Invoking the spirit of the Revolution and true to his 

Jeffersonian political principles, Pierce recalled in 

his autobiography, 

I told him that . . . although arms was my 

profession, I could not consistently accept an 

appointment in an army . . . raised to subvert 

those principles for which I had fought in the 

Revolution; that I was forbidden by the duty I 

owed to myself my country and my God; and . . . 

although I was poor rather than (enslave) my 

countrymen . . . , I would return to a cave, and eat 

potatoes to the last day of my life. 35 

For Pierce, like many Americans who had fought 

during the American Revolution, the creation of a 

standing national army was associated with Old


World corruption, particularly the royal oppression 

they had fought so hard to escape. Partisanship was 

beginning to characterize American politics. In the 

wake of the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts in 

1798, making it treasonous to criticize the United 

States government, Republicans like Pierce feared 

that such an army would be used to put down dissent 

and eventually to destroy hard-won freedoms. On 

June 14, 1805, Governor Langdon appointed Pierce 

brigadier general of the fourth brigade. In 1807, after 

twenty-one years of militia service, the general retired 

from his active duty as commander of the 

Hillsborough County regiments. 36 

Between 1807 and 1812, relations between the 

United States and Great Britain deteriorated as the 

British Navy blockaded ports and impressed 

American seamen. Americans settling on lands along 

the northern border of the United States also feared 

attack by Indians incited by British officials in 

Canada. On December 18, 1807, United States 

Senator Nahum Parker wrote to Pierce from 

Washington that, because of continuous predations 

on Americans by the British Navy—“so long the 

scourge of the sivilezed world”—the American 

people would be forced “to defend our rights by 

armies or surrender them.” 37 

Inheriting the “Glorious Principles” 

Though Benjamin Pierce opposed the undeclared, 

Federalist war with France in 1798, he endorsed the 

Jeffersonian Republican call to war with Great 

Britain in 1812. Two of Benjamin’s sons, Benjamin 

Kendrick and John Sullivan, joined the United States 

Army on the advice of their father. The entire 

family recognized the importance of military service 

at that time to preserving a strong republic. Each of 

Benjamin and Anna Pierce’s sons followed his 

precedent, embracing military service when 

necessary as an important part of their lives. Their 

three eldest sons, as well as several other close 

relatives, served in the military, but differed in their 

choice of whether to remain there during peacetime 

or to return to civilian life. 38 

John McNeil (1784–1850), Benjamin Pierce’s son-in-law; oil on canvas, 

attributed to Henry Willard (1802–55), c. 1825. The Pierces 

believed that a strong military was necessary to the defense of 

American liberties. Franklin and his four brothers all served in the 

military at one time or another, and two brothers-in-law (both 

McNeils) boasted distinguished militia and War of 1812 careers. 

New Hampshire Historical Society. 

Benjamin Kendrick Pierce, the eldest son, was born 

in Hillsborough on August 29, 1790. Named for his 

maternal grandfather, the sturdy settler Benjamin 

Kendrick, he was educated at Phillips Academy, 

Exeter, and entered Dartmouth College in 1807, where 

he pursued a classical course of study for three years. 

Benjamin K. began the study of law in the office of 

Hillsborough attorney David Starrett. But, at the 

outbreak of the War of 1812, he obtained a commission 

as a lieutenant in the Third Regiment of Artillery, 

United States Army. After the war, he remained in 

the army, eventually retiring with the rank of colonel 

after a distinguished career defending American 

interests on the frontiers in Michigan and Florida. 39


John Sullivan Pierce, Benjamin’s second son, was 

born in Hillsborough on November 5, 1796. 

Named for his father’s friend and political mentor 

Revolutionary General John Sullivan (1740–95), John 

S. was probably educated in local schools. Like his 

older brother, he received a commission as lieutenant 

in the United States Army in 1814. After the war, he 

remained in the army stationed at Fort Mackinac and 

died at Detroit, Michigan, on September 28, 1824. 40 

Charles Grandison Pierce, the third son, was 

born in Hillsborough in 1803 and named for the 

morally virtuous character of a popular English 

novel, Sir Charles Grandison, written by Samuel 

Richardson and published in 1753. Charles received 

an appointment to the United States military 

academy at West Point in 1818. He later moved to 

Utica, New York, where he died on June 25, 1828. 41 

The future United States president Franklin 

Pierce, born in Hillsborough on November 23, 

1804, joined a military company that was drilling on 

the Bowdoin College campus, while he was studying 

there. He was elected their captain. On June 10, 

1831, shortly after Franklin’s election to the state 

legislature, he was appointed captain general’s aide in 

the militia. He was discharged June 6, 1834, after 

serving on the governor’s military staff, but later 

served with distinction as a brigadier general in the 

United States Army during the Mexican War. 42 

Henry Dearborn Pierce, Benjamin’s youngest son, 

was born in Hillsborough on September 19, 1812. 

Named for his father’s friend and political confidant 

General Henry Dearborn (1751–1829), he was 

educated in local schools and eventually took over 

the family farm. Henry D. began service in the state 

militia with an appointment as a cavalry lieutenant 

in the twenty-sixth regiment on January 27, 1836. 

He was promoted to the rank of captain on 

December 8, 1838. In 1842, he was appointed 

aid-de-camp to Governor Henry Hubbard’s staff with 

the rank of colonel. A popular orator, Henry D. 

Pierce also represented Hillsborough in the legislature 

in 1841 and 1842. Town voters elected him moderator 

twenty-one times between 1845 and 1868. 43 

Finally, Benjamin Pierce’s eldest daughter 

Elizabeth was the wife of War of 1812 hero John 

McNeil (1784–1850), whom she had married on 

December 25, 1811. Of Scots descent, McNeil was 

the son of one of her father’s revolutionary comrades. 

Both had served at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Not long 

afterward, Solomon McNeil (1782–1863), the elder 

brother of John McNeil, further cemented the family 

connections by marrying Nancy, Benjamin Pierce’s 

second eldest daughter. John and Solomon McNeil 

each served valiantly against the British on the 

Niagara frontier during the War of 1812. John McNeil 

remained in the United States Army, rising to the rank 

of brigadier general before he resigned in 1830 to 

accept the post of Surveyor of the Port of Boston. 44 

A “Firm Example of Patriotic Virtues” 

Benjamin Pierce’s last official duty was casting a vote 

as an elector for Andrew Jackson in 1832. He remained 

a steadfast Democrat to the end of his life. Although 

retired from government, the aged veteran continued 

to work to preserve the memory and ideals of the 

Revolution to his dying day. In 1836, he was elected 

vice president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the 

Society of Cincinnati, a hereditary association of former 

Order of the Society of 

Cincinnati medal, owned 

by the Pierces, c. 1850. 

Both Benjamin and 

Franklin Pierce belonged 

to the hereditary organization 

of revolutionary 

officers formed in 1783 

and named after Lucius 

Quinctius Cincinnatus. 

The Roman general, like 

the majority of revolutionary 

soldiers, had left his 

farm to bear arms and had 

returned to agriculture as 

soon as the enemy was 

defeated. New Hampshire 

Historical Society.


officers of the Continental Army. On April 1, 1839, 

after suffering for two years from paralysis caused by 

a stroke, General Pierce died quietly in the bedroom 

of his house at Hillsborough Lower Village 

surrounded by members of his family, including his 

son Franklin, then a United States senator. At his 

funeral in Hillsborough on April 3, hundreds of 

men, women, and children from across New 

Hampshire assembled to pay last respects to their 

link with the American Revolution. Neither they nor 

the future president would ever forget the fervor with 

which this patriot had struggled first to help create a 

nation and then, ever afterwards, to uphold the ideals 

and principles of the republic and its constitution, 

keeping the spirit alive in the minds and lives of the 

next generation. 45 

Notes 

1. New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, Concord, 

January 10, 1825; Andrew Burstein, America’s 

Jubilee, July 4, 1826: A Generation Remembers the 

Revolution After Fifty Years of Independence (New 

York: Vintage Books, 2001), 8–33; Walter 

Newman Dooley, “Lafayette in New Hampshire” 

(master’s thesis, University of New Hampshire, 

1941); George David Browne, The History of 

Hillsborough, New Hampshire, 1735–1921, 2 vols. 

(Manchester, N. H.: John B. Clarke Co., 1921), 

1:218, 465; 2:367; Sarah J. Purcell, Sealed with 

Blood: War, Sacrifice, and Memory in Revolutionary 

America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania 

Press, 2002),173. 

2. New Hampshire Patriot, January 10, 1825; John 

Resch, Suffering Soldiers: Revolutionary War 

Veterans, Moral Sentiment, and Political Culture in 

the Early Republic (Amherst: University of 

Massachusetts Press, 1999), 3–6, 10. 

3. Transcript of a speech delivered by General 

Benjamin Pierce at his home in Hillsborough, New 

Hampshire, December 25, 1824, folder 17, 

Benjamin Pierce Papers, New Hampshire 

Historical Society Library. 

4. Aware of his and the revolutionary generation’s 

place in history, Benjamin Pierce wrote an 

autobiography for his family and future 

generations sometime during the late 1810s. 

Benjamin Pierce, “Autobiography of Benjamin 

Pierce” (typed transcript), New Hampshire 

Historical Society Library; Purcell, Sealed with 

Blood, 6–7, 93–94, 150, 173–209. 

5. Frederic Beech Pierce, Pierce Genealogy, Being the 

Record of the Posterity of Thomas Pierce, An Early 

Inhabitant of Charlestown . . . (Worcester, Mass.: 

Charles Hamilton, 1882), 55–57; Farmer’s 

Monthly Visitor, Concord, N.H., vol. 1, no. 4 

(April 15, 1839):49–51. 

6. Benjamin Pierce, “Autobiography.” Characteristics 

of self-reliance, courage, and patriotism—similar to 

those seen in Andrew Jackson, the popular leader of 

the Democratic Party—were ascribed to Benjamin 

Pierce by some of his contemporaries. John William 

Ward, Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age (New 

York: Oxford University Press, 1975); Andrew 

Burstein, The Passions of Andrew Jackson (New York: 

Alfred A. Knopf, 2003), 21–25, 219–37. Isaac Hill, 

who supported and encouraged Benjamin Pierce’s 

candidacy for the New Hampshire governorship, 

knew both Pierce and Jackson and seems to have 

been the source of this comparison. Farmer’s 

Monthly Visitor, April 15, 1839; Donald B. Cole, 

Jacksonian Democracy in New Hampshire, 

1800–1851 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard 

University Press, 1970), 28, 30, 59–60, 70–73. 

7. Benjamin Pierce, “Autobiography”; Massachusetts 

Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, 17 vols. 

(Boston, Mass.: Secretary of the Commonwealth, 

1904), 12:364. 

8. Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American 

Republic, 1776–1787 (Chapel Hill, N. C.: 

Published for the Institute of Early American 

History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by 

the University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 

397–403, 476–83; David W. Conroy, In Public 

Houses: Drink and the Revolution of Authority in 

Colonial Massachusetts (Chapel Hill, N. C.: 


History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by 


310; Resch, Suffering Soldiers, 47–48. 

9. Farmer’s Monthly Visitor, April 15, 1839; Wilson 

Waters, History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts 

(Lowell, Mass.: Courier-Citizen Co., 1917), 774; 

Isaiah Gould, History of Stoddard, Cheshire County,


N.H., From the time of its Incorporation in 1774 to 

1854, A period of Eighty Years (Marlboro, N.H.: 

Published for Maria A. Giffen by W. L. Metcalf, 

1897), 7–9; The History of the Town of Stoddard, 

New Hampshire, Formerly Known as Monadnock 

No. 7 and Limerick, From Its Incorporation on 

November 4, 1774 to 1974 (Published by the 

History Committee of the Stoddard Historical 

Society, 1974), 3. 

10. David Jaffee, People of the Wachusett: Greater New 

England in History and Memory, 1630–1860 

(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1999), 

163–64; Benjamin Pierce, “Autobiography”; 

Farmer’s Monthly Visitor, April 15, 1839. 

11. Jere R. Daniell, Colonial New Hampshire: A History 

(Millwood, N.Y.: KTO Press, 1981), 166–70; 

Stephanie Coontz, The Social Origins of Private 

Life: A History of American Families, 1600–1900 

(New York: Verso Books, 1988), 116–60; 

Christopher Clark, The Roots of Rural Capitalism: 

Western Massachusetts, 1780–1860 (Ithaca, N.Y.: 

Cornell University Press, 1990); Jaffee, People of the 

Wachusett, 200–202; Browne, History of 

Hillsborough, 2:21; Daniel F. Secomb, History of the 

Town of Amherst, Hillsborough County, New 

Hampshire (1883; reprint, Somersworth: New 

Hampshire Publishing Co., 1972), 200, 204, 242, 

256, 259, 365, 366, 376, 656. 

12. Frederic Pierce, Pierce Genealogy, 91, 100. 

13. Jaffee, People of the Wachusett, 200–238; Nathan O. 

Hatch, The Democratization of American 

Christianity (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University 

Press, 1989), 9–11; Jon Butler, Awash in a Sea of 

Faith: Christianizing the American People 

(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990), 

170–74, 195, 259, 267; Nancy Coffey Heffernan 

and Ann Page Stecker, New Hampshire: Crosscurrents 

in Its Development (Hanover, N.H.: University 

Press of New England, 1996), 119–20; Jaffee, 

People of the Wachusett, 235; Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A 

Religious History of the American People (New Haven, 

Conn.: Yale University Press, 1972), 403–28. 

14. Farmer’s Monthly Visitor, April 15, 1839; Browne, 

History of Hillsborough, 1:333–39; Benjamin 

Pierce, probate record, 1839, Hillsborough County 

Probate Court, Nashua, N.H., docket no. 07333. 

Pierce’s estate inventory lists one and one-half pews 

and a horse shed at the Baptist Meeting House 

as assets. 

15. Browne, History of Hillsborough,1:390–91. 

16. Robert E. Shalhope, The Roots of Democracy: American 

Thought and Culture, 1760–1800 (Boston, Mass.: 

Twayne Publishers, 1990), 112–13. The establishment 

of social libraries dated back to the mid-eighteenth 

century in colonial America. The number of social 

libraries incorporated in New Hampshire grew during 

the 1790s along with the population and the desire for 

self-improvement. See Jim Piecuch, “‘Of Great 

Importance Both to Civil & Religious Welfare’: The 

Portsmouth Social Library, 1750–1786,” Historical 

New Hampshire 57 (fall/winter 2002): 67–84; Browne, 

History of Hillsborough, 1:391; Farmer’s Monthly Visitor, 

April 15, 1839; Secomb, History of the Town of 

Amherst, 129–32; Tamara Plakins Thornton, 

Cultivating Gentlemen: The Meaning of Country Life 

among the Boston Elite, 1785–1860 (New Haven, 

Conn.: Yale University Press, 1989), 120–30. 

17. Donna-Belle Garvin and James L. Garvin, On the 

Road North of Boston: New Hampshire Taverns and 

Turnpikes, 1700–1900 (Concord: New Hampshire 

Historical Society, 1988), 48–61; Browne, History 

of Hillsborough, 1:302–14, 403, 465; George 

Rogers Taylor, The Transportation Revolution, 

1815–1860 (New York: Harper and Row, 1951), 

15–26; Jaffee, People of the Wachusett, 220–21. 

18. Browne, History of Hillsborough, 1: 402, 465. 

19. Ibid., 1:401–3, 464–65; 2:456; Conroy, In Public 

Houses, 189–240. 

20. William Stickney, ed, Autobiography of Amos 

Kendall (Boston, Mass.: Lee and Shepard, 1872), 

43; Browne, History of Hillsborough, 2:459. 

21. Garvin and Garvin, On the Road North of Boston; 

list of notes due to the estate of Benjamin Pierce, 

1839, Benjamin Pierce Papers. 

22. Taylor, Transportation Revolution, 149–51; Browne, 

History of Hillsborough, 1:385–86; Benjamin Pierce 

to Franklin Pierce, July 22, 1824, Franklin Pierce 

Papers, New Hampshire Historical Society; Peter 

A. Wallner, Franklin Pierce: New Hampshire’s 

Favorite Son (Concord, N.H.: Plaidswede 

Publishing, 2004), 28. 

23. Waters, History of Chelmsford, 600; Benjamin Pierce, 

“Autobiography”; Resch, Suffering Soldiers, 81, 177; 

Alan Taylor, William Cooper’s Town: Power and 

Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American 

Republic (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), 154–55, 

241–43; Jere R. Daniell, Experiment in Republicanism: 

New Hampshire Politics and the American Revolution, 

1741–1794 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University 

Press, 1970), ix–x, 199–200, 205–7.


24. Browne, History of Hillsborough, 1:460, 506; 

Charles S. Grant, Democracy in the Connecticut 

Frontier Town of Kent (New York: W. W. Norton 

and Co., 1972), 152; Daniell, Colonial New 

Hampshire, 183–86. 

25. Benjamin Pierce, “Autobiography”; Stanley Elkins 

and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism: 

The Early American Republic, 1788–1800 (New 

York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 21–25, 

263–65; Daniell, Experiment in Republicanism, 

206, 217–18, 222, 228, 233–37; Benjamin Pierce 

to Isaac Brooks, December 26, 1802, Benjamin 

Pierce Papers. 

26. Drew R. McCoy, The Elusive Republic: Political 

Economy in Jeffersonian America (Chapel Hill: 


History and Culture by the University of North 

Carolina Press, 1980), 10, 48–49, 233–52; 

Benjamin Pierce, “Autobiography”; Farmer’s 

Monthly Visitor, April 15, 1839; Richard P. 

McCormick, The Second American Party System: 

Party Formation in the Jacksonian Era (Chapel Hill: 

University of North Carolina Press, 1966), 55; 

Cole, Jacksonian Democracy, 17–22; Nahum Parker 

to Benjamin Pierce, December 18, 1807, Benjamin 

Pierce Papers. 

27. Benjamin Pierce, “Autobiography”; Farmer’s 

Monthly Visitor, April 15, 1839; Cole, Jacksonian 

Democracy, 26–27. 

28. Secomb, History of the Town of Amherst, 346–51; 

Samuel Dinsmoor to Benjamin Pierce, Keene, 

N.H., December 16, 1822; N. Lord to Benjamin 

Pierce, Amherst, N.H., May 27, 1825; and Henry 

Hubbard to Benjamin Pierce, Charlestown, N.H., 

January 21, 1826, in Benjamin Pierce Papers. 

29. Despite the difference in name, Jackson’s new 

Democratic party inherited the ideals of 

Jeffersonian Republicanism. Committee of the 

Bunker Hill Association to Benjamin Pierce, 

Boston, Massachusetts, July 1823, and Fabius 

Whiting to Benjamin Pierce, May 19, 1826, in 

Benjamin Pierce Papers; Donald R. Hickey, The 

War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict (Urbana: 

University of Illinois Press, 1995), 300–309; 

Burstein, America’s Jubilee, 142; New Hampshire 

Patriot, January 10, June 27, 1825; February 13, 

March 13, 1826; Harriet S. Lacy, et al, “Governors 

of New Hampshire: Biographical Sketches” (New 

Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, 1977, 

typescript), 63; Caleb Keith, John Brodhead and 

Isaac Hill to Benjamin Pierce, June 23, 1826, 

Benjamin Pierce Papers; Cole, Jacksonian 

Democracy in New Hampshire, 63. 

30. Cole, Jacksonian Democracy in New Hampshire, 64; 

Nathaniel Bouton, The History of Concord from Its 

First Grant in 1725 to the Organization of the City 

Government in 1853 (Concord: McFarland and 

Jenks, 1856), 525; Message from the Governor of New- 

Hampshire to the Legislature, June 8, 1827 (Concord: 

N.H. House of Representatives, 1827), 4–7. 

31. Proceedings and Address of the New-Hampshire 

Republican State Convention . . . June 11 and 12, 

1828 (Concord: New Hampshire Patriot, 1828); 

Cole, Jacksonian Democracy, 68–73; Browne, History 

of Hillsborough, 1:452–53; Franklin Pierce to 

Elizabeth McNeil, January 28, 1828, Franklin Pierce 

Papers; Lacy, et al., “Governors of New Hampshire,” 

39–40; Cole, Jacksonian Democracy, 81. 

32. Wallner, Franklin Pierce, 35; Message from His 

Excellency Benjamin Pierce to the New-Hampshire 

Legislature, June 6, 1829 (Concord: N.H. House of 

Representatives, 1829), 3–7. 

33. Farmer’s Monthly Visitor, April 15, 1839; Elkins 

and McKitrick, Age of Federalism, 717; Lawrence 

D. Cress, Citizens in Arms: The Army and the 

Militia in American Society to the War of 1812 

(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 

1982), 19; Barry Schwartz, George Washington: The 

Making of an American Symbol (Ithaca, N. Y.: 

Cornell University Press, 1987), 13–89. 

34. Farmer’s Monthly Visitor, April 15, 1839; Daniell, 

Experiment in Republicanism, 97, 194–95; Browne, 

History of Hillsborough, 1:243. 

35. Benjamin Pierce, “Autobiography.” 

36. David Waldstreicher, In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes: 

The Making of American Nationalism, 1776–1820 

(Chapel Hill, N.C.: Published for the Omohundro 

Institute of Early American History and Culture by 


156; Elkins and McKitrick, Age of Federalism, 

700–711; Chandler E. Potter, The Military History 

of the State of New Hampshire, From its Settlement, 

in 1623, to the Rebellion, in 1861 (1866; reprint, 

Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 

1972), part 1, p. 386; Browne, History of 

Hillsborough, 2:455. 

37. Hickey, War of 1812, 5–28; Nahum Parker to 

Benjamin Pierce, Washington, D.C., December 

18, 1807, Benjamin Pierce Papers. 

38. Farmer’s Monthly Visitor, April 15, 1839.


39. Browne, History of Hillsborough, 1:415; 2:461; 

Secomb, History of the Town of Amherst, 201, 204, 

242, 256, 259, 365, 367, 377, 656; Frederic Pierce, 

Pierce Genealogy, 100, 165–66; Potter, Military 

History of the State, 2:289–99. 

40. Browne, History of Hillsborough, 2:461; Frederic 

Pierce, Pierce Genealogy, 100, 166. 

41. Browne, History of Hillsborough, 2:461; Franklin 

Pierce to Benjamin and Anna Pierce, June 9, 1828, 

Franklin Pierce Papers; Frederic Pierce, Pierce 

Genealogy, 100; Register of the Officers and Cadets of 

the U. S. Military Academy, June, 1822 (n.p.). 

42. Wallner, Franklin Pierce, 25; Scott Lanzendorf, 

New Hampshire Militia Officers, 1820–1850: 

Division, Brigade, and Regimental Field and Staff 

Officers (Bowie, Md: Heritage Books, 1995), 151; 

Wallner, Franklin Pierce, 133–55. 

43. Potter, Military History of the State, part 2, p. 307; 

Browne, History of Hillsborough, 1:506; 2: 470. 

44. Frederic Pierce, Pierce Genealogy, 95, 98, 100; 

Browne, History of Hillsborough, 1:247; 2:390–94; 

Benjamin Pierce to John McNeil, Hillsborough, 

February 18, 1814, Benjamin Pierce Papers. 

45. Browne, History of Hillsborough, 2:455–56; 

Frederic Pierce, Pierce Genealogy, 97; Purcell, 

Sealed with Blood, 86–91; Franklin Pierce to 

General John McNeil, April 1839, Franklin Pierce 

Papers; Farmer’s Monthly Visitor, April 15, 1839; 

New Hampshire Patriot, April 8, April 22, 1839.

Governor Benjamin Pierce - New Hampshire Historical Society

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?