Jesse Appleton
| Jesse Appleton | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 2nd President of Bowdoin College | |
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In office 1809–1819 |
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| Preceded by | Joseph McKeen |
| Succeeded by | William Allen |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 17, 1772 New Ipswich, New Hampshire |
| Died | November 12, 1819 (aged 46) Brunswick, Maine |
| Residence | Brunswick, Maine |
| Alma mater | Dartmouth College |
| Profession | professor |
| Website | http://library.bowdoin.edu/arch/mss/jag.shtml |
Jesse Appleton (November 17, 1772 – November 12, 1819), son of Francis Appleton and Elizabeth Hubbard, was the second president of Bowdoin College and the father of First Lady Jane Pierce.
After having graduated from Dartmouth College in 1792, Appleton taught at several institutions including Amherst College and then 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, and was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1813. He is interred at Pine Grove Cemetery in Brunswick..
He married Elizabeth Means, daughter of Robert Means (Stewartstown, County Tyrone, Ireland, August 23, 1742 – Amherst, New Hampshire, January 24, 1823) and wife (m. November 24, 1774) Mary McGregor (December 6, 1752 – January 14, 1838), and was the father of five children who survived through infancy, including Jane who would become First Lady to President Franklin Pierce, and Frances who would marry famed Bowdoin professor Alpheus Spring Packard, Sr. In 1837, Packard went on to edit The Works of Rev. Jesse Appleton, D.D., with a Memoir of His Life and Character. His wife's sister was Mary Means (Amherst, New Hampshire, October 20, 1777 – April 12, 1858), married on November 6, 1799 to Jeremiah Mason.
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