Brief biographies from American history, for the fifth and sixth grades

by Edna Henry Lee Turpin

In his account of his life he gives us a vivid picture of himself, a friendless, homeless boy, walking hungry up the streets of the strange city. He met a boy with some bread and asked where he could buy food. Being directed to the baker’s, he asked for “three pennyworth” of bread and received “three great puffy rolls.” Then he says, he “having no room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each arm and eating the other.” Thus he passed the home of a Mr. Read, and at the door stood his daughter Deborah, who laughed at the “awkward, ridiculous appearance” of the strange lad. This Deborah Reed a few years later became Franklin’s wife. Being satisfied with one roll, the youth gave the other two to a woman and child who had come on the boat with him.

He soon got work with a printer in the town, but gave it up because the governor offered to set him up in business for himself. He went to London, to buy the outfit needed for his trade. On arriving there, he found that the governor had failed to send the promised letters of credit,—had, indeed, no credit himself—and the youth, penniless, in a foreign land, was thrown on his own resources. He sought and secured work as a printer, and remained in London about a year. He then returned to Philadelphia, where he worked awhile as salesman in a shop and afterwards at his trade. Soon after his return, he married Deborah Read, who made him a good and helpful wife, managing his home and aiding him in the shop.

Franklin had the “prospering virtues” of economy, industry, and temperance, and he increased in worldly goods and in the esteem of his townspeople. Despite some serious personal failings, he was a good citizen and in public questions people came more and more to respect his judgment.

In the American colonies in the eighteenth century, there were few newspapers and those had a small circulation. Nearly every printer, however, published an almanac which contained weather forecasts, advice, jokes, and miscellaneous information. These almanacs had a large sale and in many homes the only books to be found were an almanac and a Bible. In 1733 Franklin published an almanac which he announced was prepared by one Richard Saunders, called for short “Poor Richard,” a character which Franklin created and represented as overflowing with quaint humor and wise and witty sayings. “Poor Richard’s Almanac” became the most popular of all publications of the kind. Franklin kept up the yearly issue till 1758, when he turned it over to his partner.

Franklin was a man who was never so busy about many things that he did not have time for another. You have been told how he acquired a good English style; to this was added the charm that he always had something to say that was worth hearing. He was fond of different branches of science and was gifted with inventive talent. He studied the laws which govern the movement of hot air, and invented what is called an “open fireplace stove;” under the name of “the Franklin stove” or “Pennsylvania fireplace,” a modified form of it is still in use.

When he was about forty years old, Franklin became interested in the subject of electricity and became convinced that lightning is a manifestation of electricity. He proved this by a famous experiment, drawing the current down the string of a kite in a storm. He invented the lightning rod—for he was always trying to apply the principles of science so as to make them useful. Among his other inventions, was a musical instrument called the “Armonica,” a kind of musical glasses.

Franklin was a progressive and public-spirited citizen. He organized an orderly night-watch for Philadelphia, established the first volunteer fire company, the first hospital, and the first subscription and circulating library, in America. He interested people in the subject of education and established an academy which became the College of Philadelphia, and was the real origin of the University of Pennsylvania. He originated also the American Philosophical Society “to propagate useful knowledge.”

For years he served as postmaster, first of Philadelphia, and afterwards as deputy postmaster-general of the colonies; he introduced many reforms in the postal service and improved the methods of carrying mail to and from the seventy post offices then in the country.

Franklin was now nearly fifty years of age and he was just to begin the career which made him honored and renowned. This was his work as a patriot at home and abroad.

When the French and Indian War broke out, he was commissioned to procure wagons for Braddock’s army. In two weeks by the exercise of private means and wonderful energy, he procured one hundred and fifty wagons and two hundred and fifty pack-horses. After Braddock’s defeat, Franklin, with a band of men whom he had persuaded to enlist, went to protect the settlers on the frontier against the Indians.