Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
The Founding Father, scientist, inventor, statesman, writer, civil servant was born in Boston Jan 17, the 15th of 17 children and the 10th son. His father, a tallow chandler, could only afford to pay for one year of school for Franklin; at age 10 Benjamin left school and worked for his father then a cutler. He apprenticed to his brother James, a printer, at age 13. His brother started The New England Courant, the first newspaper in Boston. Benjamin wrote letters to the paper under a pseudonym because his brother wouldn't let him write. James was imprisoned for a year because his paper's politics were unpopular with the authorities, and Benjamin published the paper in his absence. When James got out of jail, he was less than happy with is brother's help, and Benjamin ran away to Philadelphia.
Once in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin worked as a printer. He made friends with the governor of Pennsylvania, William Keith. Keith encouraged Franklin to go to London to further train as a printer and buy equipment to set up his own printing business. Franklin arrived in London at the end of 1724 -- with no money and none of assistance Keith promised him. Franklin was clever enough to get work at two prominent London print houses, Palmer's and Watt's. He worked for two years before returning to Philadelphia much more successful and well-known than when he left.
Franklin returned to Pennsylvania in 1726. He organized a philosophical society, Junto, in 1727. Junto was a discussion group of young Philadelphia intellectuals and meetings were structured by Franklin. He proposed questions and helped moderate the discussion and proposals that resulted. Among the ideas generated in Junto were volunteer fire-fighter organizations and a public hospital. Junto served as the base of the American Philosophical Society, proposed in 1743 and still in existence today.
Franklin married Deborah Read in 1730, the same year he bought the Pennsylvania Gazette. The Franklins ran a store and a book shop while raising a family. Deborah raised Franklin's illegitimate son, William, as her own, along with her two children Francis and Sarah. Francis died at age four. Franklin stayed busy for the next 20 years working on his experiments with electricity and his inventions He also began publishing Poor Richard's Almanack in 1732 and became clerk for the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1736. He published Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania, inspiring the Academy of Pennyslvania -- later the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1731, Franklin founded the first public library in the colonies. Libraries at the time were private libraries owned by wealthy people. Franklin's idea was a subscription library; members paid a small fee in order to access the collection. In 1742 the Library Company was chartered as the Philadelphia Library. Subscription fees went to buy books from England and elsewhere in Europe.
Franklin sold his printing company in 1748 and entered politics in earnest. He worked wholeheartedly for independence, despite the irreparable breach it caused between him and his loyalist son William. His wife died in 1774, while Franklin was in England and embroiled in the the Hutchinson Letters Affair. Benjamin Franklin died April 17, 1790.
Sources
The World of Benjamin Franklin from the Franklin Institute Online