Benjamin Franklin, one of our "Founding Fathers", is a very important man that has done many things to make the United Stated of America what it is today.

    Ben Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 and died on April 17, 1790 at age 84. He was buried in Philadelphia in the cemetery of Christ Church.

Ben's Childhood

     Ben was great at reading and read almost every book he could get his hands on. He was also a good writer. Although he was a good reader, his math skills needed lots of  help. He left school at age 10 and helped his father, Josiah, in his candle and soap shop. It is known that Benjamin had 13 to 17 brothers and sisters! That's a big family! When Ben was 12 he learned to be a printer. He helped his older brother James in his shop. It was James who taught Benjamin how to do things in the print shop. Ben was an apprentice to his brother's printing business. An apprentice is a person that learns a how to do a certain job with a skilled employee watching over them.

    Ben thought it was cruel to kill other living things to eat, so at 16 he became a vegetarian. However, on the way back to Philadelphia, he gave up vegetarianism because when the people on the ship sliced open a fish, he saw that the fish had eaten another fish, so he sopposed that it must be alright to eat meat.

    Ben wrote many articles for James' newspaper, the New England Courant. He signed the articles as Mistress Silence Dogood, so his brother never knew his younger brother was writing for his newspaper.

Benjamin's Young Adult Life

     When Benjamin was 17 he ran away to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to carry on being a printer because he hated being an apprentice for his brother.

    In Philadelphia Ben lived easily. He met men that enjoyed to read, like him. With his friends, he formed a group called The Leather Apron Club. This group met every Friday night.

    On September 1st, 1730, he married Deborah Read (Franklin). When Benjamin was 24 he owned his own newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, and has his own printing press. Ben and Deborah also opperated a store, even when they already had a printing press to run. In their store they might have sold books, fishnets, chocolate,   pictures of animals, pencils, and maps/compasses. 

    Some of Franklin's ideas tuned into great inventions. The glass harmonica, the Franklin stove, and bifocal eye glasses are just some of the many, many inventions he made.

    In 1732, Poor Richard's Almanac was published for the first time. Richard Saunders, along with Polly Baker and Silence Dogood, were his pseudonyms. In Ben's almanac, he put information on the stars and the weather. In the empty spaces he found he would put in jokes or wise sayings. One of these wise sayings is "A penny saved is a penny earned". The almanac was published for 25 years until 1757.

    Ben was a man that helped improve his city. He organized the first volunteer fire department in Philadelphia, started the first public library there, and was the Postmaster General.

Ben's Later Adult Life

     Ben had two children when he was 40. William Temple, who was 17, and 2-year-old Sarah. (Ten year's earlier his child, Francis, died when he was 4.) 

    This is when Ben probably got lots of his fame. Right now electricity was very popular, but back then it was only made from rubbing silk cloth and glass tubes together. Ben thought electricity and lightning were the same thing so he wrote to a European scientist so he could test these ideas.  Ben said to stick a pointed rod out of the sentry box and have a scientist stand out there in a thunder storm. If the lightning was attracted to the rod, than that would prove they were the same. The scientist wrote back in 1752 saying that lightning really was the same as electricity. Ben thought of a way he could prove his idea himself. One day he went out with a kite that had a long pointed wire at the end. There was a key attached to the kite near Benjamin's hand. The electrical shock came through the key, so he had his own proof. Ben's next invention was the lightning rod. When lightning hit, it would let the shock travel safely to the ground. Ben built a bell that hooked up to the lightning rod, so it would ring every time lightning hit. Even though it was a great invention, Debbie hated that bell.

    In 1748 Ben sold his printing office and retired. Four years early his wife had tragically died. 

    Later, Ben made the first map of  the Gulf Stream. On June 11, 1776, the Declaration Committee met to draft the Declaration of Independence. Including Franklin, there were 5 members, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, Ben Franklin, Robert Livingston, and John Adams. He also helped write the Constitution of the United States. Benjamin Franklin was the only statesman to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, The Constitution, and The Treaty of Paris establishing peace with Britain.  

Sources of Information:

http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/birthday/faq.html  

http://www.crystalinks.com/franklin.html

http://sln.sln.fi.edu/franklin/rotten.html 

http://www.pocanticohills.org/franklin/quiz1.htm