Wednesday, Jul. 01, 2009

Twist In Time: Tragedy Rode The Rails

The Presidential campaign of 1852 was a rough and tumble affair, and when dark horse candidate Franklin Pierce captured the Democratic nomination, Mrs. Pierce was more than surprised--she was terrified. She had a strong premonition that something bad was going to happen, and it did, but it sure wasn't what she had imagined.

Two months later, in January, 1853, the train pulled away from the station in Andover, Massachusetts. It had only one car, but it carried a very special passenger, Franklin Pierce. The President-elect of the United States was on his way to be sworn in as the nation's 14th Chief Executive. Traveling with him was Mrs. Pierce and their 11 year-old son, Benjamin, who sat beside his mother. She remained uneasy.

The train left the depot at 12:15 P.M. on that freezing January afternoon. Pierce and his family settled in to watch the countryside slip by. They would not enjoy the view for very long.

President-elect Pierce was looking out the window. It was now 12:20 P.M. Suddenly he felt a severe shock. The front axle had broken, and the car was being dragged along the tracks. In another second, it was thrown over a rocky ledge and turned over twice before it hit the bottom.

After a few moments of moans and groans, it looked as if no one had been seriously hurt and that everybody was accounted for. Then Mrs. Pierce cried out that she couldn't find Benjamin. The President-elect rushed down the embankment to the splintered car that had broken in half. There he spied his son. The father gently picked up the lifeless body and carried it back to where Mrs. Pierce was sitting. Benjamin Pierce was no longer lost.

The Pierces buried their only surviving child and went on to Washington. The President was forced to turn from the tragedy and deal with the monumental issues that faced the country. Mrs. Pierce, however, could find no solace. She became a recluse, unable to carry out her duties as First Lady, and she never forgave herself.

You see, all the time, her premonitions of tragedy had caused her to fear for her husband's life. She had been afraid that someone would assassinate him. In a stunning twist in time, she never dreamed that the needle of her extra-sensory perceptions was pointing to little Benjamin, the last of her three children to be jerked from this life prematurely.