| Francis A. Nixon | |
|---|---|
| Born | Francis Anthony Nixon December 3, 1878 Elk Township, Ohio |
| Died | September 4, 1956 (aged 77) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Father of U.S. President Richard Nixon |
| Religion | Quaker (originally Methodist) |
| Spouse | Hannah Milhous Nixon |
| Children | Harold Nixon (1909-1933) Richard Nixon (1913-1994) Donald Nixon (1914-1987) Arthur Nixon (1918-1925) Edward Nixon (b.1930) |
Francis Anthony "Frank" Nixon (December 3, 1878 – September 4, 1956) was an American businessman and the father of U.S. President Richard Nixon.
Nixon was born in Elk Township, Vinton County, Ohio, the son of Sarah Ann (née Wadsworth), a native of Hocking Township, Fairfield County, Ohio, and Samuel Brady Nixon, who was from Smith Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania.[1] 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. Nixon was raised Methodist, but converted to Quakerism when he married Hannah Milhous on June 25, 1908. They had five sons:
After Richard was born, Nixon abandoned the lemon grove, and the family moved to the Quaker community of Whittier, California. Nixon focused on the family business, a store that sold groceries and Atlantic Richfield gasoline but the family remained impoverished. Nixon's life was marked by the deaths of his two sons, 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 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." Writer Jessamyn West, a cousin of the Nixons, was in Frank's Sunday school class for some time. She later described him as "a fiery persuasive teacher," and wrote that Frank Nixon's version of the social gospel inclined her politically toward socialism[2] He was played by Tom Bower in Oliver Stone's Nixon.
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