Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Citizen Ben
Benjamin Franklin's birthday is fast approaching: He was born on January 17 in 1706. He did much in his 84 years.
What A guy
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Born 1706, January 17
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Born 1706, January 17
In a resent story, I mentioned the fact that Ben Franklin left some money to the city of Philadelphia; actually he left a great deal of money. One of the things that were funded is the 3 times life statue or him sitting in the Franklin Institute. I think if our present City Fathers had got there hands on his money, the public would not see a cent.
Ben would be 302 years old this year, so let’s celebrate with some little known Franklin facts:
Franklin started writing under the name of Silence Dogood when he was 16, later he used the name of Anthony Afterwit, as “poor Richard” Saunders. In his almanac he predicted that a rival almanac maker would die at a certain hour and minute during the year. He didn’t.
Franklin’s greatest hoax was the “Speech of Polly Barker” He wrote that Polly was being persecuted for giving birth to her 5th illegitimate child. In her speech to the court, Polly cited God’s command to increase and multiply and claimed that she had enthusiastically obeyed His word. She concluded that the authorities should have a statue erected in her memory. Foreign papers, magazines and history books picked up Franklin’s tale. John E. Hall of Philadelphia also published it as fact in the American Law Journal of 1813. The last time the story was printed as truth was in 1945, in a book called “A Social History of the American family. The Polly Barker speech was written when Franklin was 40. This has been referred to as his “salty year”. He had just written his “Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress”, in which he gives eight reasons for having affairs with older woman instead of younger ones.
Colonial gossip had it that Franklin was not asked to draft the Declaration of Independence for fear he might hide a joke in it.
While in England, he wrote a newspaper report that the whales in America leaped up Niagara Falls in pursuit of cod.
In his Pennsylvania Gazette of Nov 24 1738, he reported that a woman gave birth to octuplets, seven boys and one girl, all living. He also wrote about a witch trial in Mount Holly NJ, which was also fictitious. When he was 76, he was still making up tales by propagandizing against England with a story that Indians scalped 1,062 Americans under orders from King George III.
The husband of Deborah Rogers owed debts he could not pay, facing legal action; he left Philadelphia and never came back. Deborah became the wife of Ben Franklin in what is believed to have been a common law arrangement, as there was no record of their marriage.
Franklin was one of the best swimmers in the colony, and praised swimming as “a normalizer and reducer of fatty tissue”
In the late afternoon a Franklin tree shades his grave located at 5th and Arch Street.
Jack Schmidt 2/9/2001
Updated 1/8/2008
Updated 1/8/2008
Information found in the column “A Rambler in Philadelphia” published in the Philadelphia Bulletin in the late 1960’s.
Comments:
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What a Life!
I liked the addition of him in the 'Nat'l Treasure ' film...
-chris muir
I liked the addition of him in the 'Nat'l Treasure ' film...
-chris muir
# posted by 
: 11:04 PM
: 11:04 PM
Chris, I'm glad you enjoyed the story. I enjoy your strip each day.
Your ladies remind me of my girlfriends, nice.
Kraken
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Your ladies remind me of my girlfriends, nice.
Kraken
# posted by : 9:17 AM
: 9:17 AM<< Home
