Following years of declining health due to heavy drinking, Franklin Pierce retired and became a farmer. He split his time between Concord, where he gained notoriety as a lawyer before pursuing politics, and a cottage at Little Boar’s Head on the coast. In September 1869, he returned to Concord full-time and died on October 8 from cirrhosis of the liver. He was buried in Old North Cemetery next to his wife Jane, who had died six years earlier.
