Francis A. Nixon

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For other people named Francis Nixon, see Francis Nixon.

Francis Anthony "Frank" Nixon (3 December 1878–4 September 1956), father of United States President Richard Nixon, was born in Vinton County, Ohio. Nixon moved to California at the turn of the century after having been frostbitten working as a motorman in an open streetcar in Columbus, Ohio. After working as a farmhand and oil roustabout, he attempted to cultivate lemons outside Los Angeles. Frank was an Irish Catholic who had sincerely converted to Quakerism to marry Hannah Milhous on June 25, 1908, but never fully absorbed its spirit, retaining instead a volatile temper.

They had five children:

Harold Samuel Nixon (June 1 1909 – March 7 1933)
Richard Nixon (January 9 1913 – April 22 1994)
Francis Donald Nixon (November 23 1914 – June 27 1987)
Arthur Burdg Nixon (May 26 1918 – August 10 1925)
Edward Calvert Nixon (May 3 1930)

After Richard was born, Frank abandoned the lemon grove, and the family moved to the Quaker community of Whittier, California. Frank focused on the family business, a store that sold groceries and Atlantic Richfield gasoline but the family remained impoverished.

Frank's life was marked by the deaths of Richard's brothers, Arthur and Harold, from tuberculosis. He has been described as a "restless, frustrated, and angry man, a mean-spirited person who psychologically abused his five sons and sometimes beat them." However, Richard Nixon always spoke highly of his parents. He often spoke lovingly of his mother as a "Quaker saint," and began his memoirs with the words "I was born in a house my father built."

References

[Nixon Fun Facts] via Nixon Foundation

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