Born in 1804, Franklin Pierce is the son of New Hampshire governor Benjamin Pierce. He is a descendant of Thomas Pierce, who helped settle the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. The future president attends Philip Exeter Academy and then Bowdoin College in Maine. There, he develops a reputation for being “chivalrous, manly, and warm-hearted.” “He was one of the most popular students in the whole college,” says a friend. One of Pierce’s fellow students and best friends is Nathaniel Hawthorne, a writer also descended from America’s first settlers.
