by James Harvey

Created on: July 31, 2009

It seemed there was nothing the man could not do. Benjamin Frankiln was an author, printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and soldier as well as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. With his dignified bearing, he projected a grandfatherly presence in the early formation of this country. If George Washington has been called 'the father of his country', Benjamin Franklin was certainly it's 'grandfather'.

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706, on a street called Milk Street. He was the son of Josiah Franklin, a candle and soap maker and Abiah Folger (who was a descendant of the founder of Folger's Coffee, James Athearn Folger, a coffee brand that is popular in supermarkets till this day), who was Josiah's second wife. Benjamin was the fifteenth of seventeen children as well as the youngest son.

Young Ben's father originally wanted him to be a clergyman, but he didn't have enough money to support his education, so he attended Boston Latin School; he did not graduate. But Ben was a voracious reader, reading various books for hours on end. One can say that he was basically self-taught. Ben finished his schooling at the age of ten.

He worked with his father for a time and then became an apprentice printer to his older brother, James, a master printer who taught Ben the printing trade. When Ben was 15 in 1721, his older brother created the newspaper, The New-England Currant, the first independent newspaper in the then-13 colonies of what would later became known as the United States of America. When he was denied an opportunity to write a personal article for the paper, Ben created a pseudonym named "Mrs. Silence Dogwood", who was obstensibly a middle-aged widow.

The article circulated a lot of attention around town-no one at this point knew that it was really young Ben Franklin who was its actual author. When discovered by older brother James that he was actually its author, he was very angry with his younger brother. Ben left the apprenticeship and was viewed as a fugitive.. He ran away to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he worked for several printers. For a time he even worked as a printer in London, but the prospects wasn't very promising. He returned to Philadelphia in 1726.

Ben Franklin was innovative. In 1727, when he was 21, he created a group of artisans and tradesmen known as "The Junto". It was in effect, a fraternity,

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