by Marsha Coles

Created on: December 02, 2010

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts to Josiah Franklin and Abiah (Folger) Franklin. Benjamin was Abiah’s eighth child and Josiah’s fifteenth and last of ten sons. Being the fifteenth of seventeen children his father could only afford to send him to school for two years at the Boston Latin School.

            At the age of twelve Benjamin became an apprentice to his older brother James, who was a printer. Three years later James founded the New England Courant. Benjamin wished to write a letter for the newspaper but was rejected so he began writing under the pseudonym “Mrs. Silence Dogood”. The widow’s letters were published and she became an important topic of discussion in Boston. When his brother found out his ruse he was very upset with him.

            In 1758, after running away to Pennsylvania at the age of seventeen, he became partners with Hugh Meredith and opened their own print shop. The following year Benjamin became the publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette and once again began writing for a newspaper.

            When Benjamin was seventeen he proposed to Deborah Read who was two years younger, but due to his financial insecurities her mother refused to allow the union. It was at this time that Benjamin was leaving for London at the behest of Sir William Keith.

            While Benjamin was in London, Deborah married a man by the name of John Rodgers. Unfortunately, the marriage didn’t last as he fell into deep debt and fled to Barbados with Deborah’s dowry. Deborah was now penniless and unable to marry again because her husband’s whereabouts were unknown. Benjamin and Deborah decided to enter a common-law marriage and raised three children from this union.    

            Benjamin is known as a renowned inventor. Some of his most famous inventions include the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, and bifocal glasses. He also found a way to convert lightning into electricity by tying a key to the string of a kite during a storm.   

            In 1776 Benjamin Franklin was appointed a member of the “Committee of Five” who together wrote the Declaration of Independence.

            On April 17, 1790, at the grand age of 84, Benjamin Franklin passed quietly from this life but not from the minds and hearts of the people. Today there is a place of honor for Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial which was dedicated on October 25, 1972.

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