[3] Nixon relocated to California at the end of the century after having been frostbitten working as a motorman in an open streetcar in Columbus, Ohio.

Shortly after graduating from law school, Richard founded the Citra-Frost Company which attempted to produce and sell frozen orange juice.

[5] After his son Richard was born, Francis Nixon abandoned the lemon grove, and the family relocated to the Quaker community of East Whittier, California.

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 at East Whittier Friends Church for some time.

[6] By the time of his later adulthood, Nixon often discussed his political opinions with strangers, his son Don remembering his father as being willing to debate anyone he encountered in the family market and having an intolerance of Democrats.

Aitken described these as erratic voting habits that displayed changing political loyalties in the early life of his son Richard.

[10] In 1938, Francis' son Richard met Pat Ryan,[11] who Frank reportedly developed a "playful relationship" with and spared the same criticisms he had given his children.