BIO: Benjamin FRANKLIN, Beaver County, PA
    
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    BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES.  This Volume Contains Biographical Sketches 
    of Leading Citizens of Beaver County, Pennsylvania.  Buffalo, N.Y., 
    Chicago, Ill.: Biographical Publishing Company, 1899, pp. 51-55.
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    BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, the subject of this sketch, is a prominent educator of
  Beaver county, Pa., and has grown gray in the active service of that noble
  profession. He is a son of George and Jane (West) Franklin, and was born
  August 25, 1831, in Sherburne, Chenango county, New York. His mother died
  when he was very young, and the young lad was reared by a Connecticut family.
  The name of his foster-father was Orrin Harmon, who removed to Ohio when
  Benjamin was still very young. Mr. Harmon was a surveyor by trade and was in
  the employ of the Connecticut Land Company. Upon going west to Ohio, he
  settled at Ravenna, where the subject of our sketch obtained his primary
  education. This was supplemented by a three years' course at the academy at
  Ashtabula, Ohio, after which young Franklin completed the high school
    
    52  BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES
    
  course at Ravenna, and then took a finishing course at Tappan Seminary, his
  foster-father having a scholarship in that institution.
    
    Mr. Franklin then began his life work for which he had spent many years in
  diligent preparation. He taught school two years, and then went to Beaver
  county, Pa., in 1856. After locating permanently in Industry township, where
  he purchased property, he has followed his chosen calling almost
  uninterruptedly ever since. After teaching in Industry township for four
  years, he taught one year in Ohio township. In 1860, he was elected principal
  of the Fallston schools, where he remained four years by contract. At the
  close of that time, he was offered a larger salary at North Bridgewater and
  remained there four years. The people of Fallston then came forward and
  desiring his services, persuaded Mr. Franklin to return to Fallston by giving
  him a very substantial increase in salary over that received at North
  Bridgewater. So he returned to Fallston, and remained there for six years,
  but as it was his intention to be a candidate for county superintendent of
  Beaver County the following year, he did not accept the Fallston school, but
  taught one term in Brighton township as involved a period of effort which
  would terminate before election time.
    
    In May, 1875, Mr. Franklin was elected county superintendent over M. L.
  Knight, the incumbent at that time. At the close of his first term of three
  years, he was elected again to the same position. After his second term had
  closed, Mr. Franklin did not teach for some time, but purchased a store in
  Fallston, and engaged in mercantile pursuits, with the assistance of his
  sons, for a period of five years. At the end of that time, Mr. Franklin
  accepted a school at Smith's Ferry, being offered special inducements to take
  it and discipline it. After spending one year there, he taught at Freedom for
  a year, at College Hill near Geneva College, for two years, at West
  Bridgewater for two years, in a graded school at Pulaski, in an independent
  school district for two years, and then returned to West Bridgewater for two
  terms. Subsequently he retired to his farm in Brighton township and
  superintended its affairs until 1898. In the autumn of that year he accepted
  the charge of the school which he is now teaching in Brighton township. For
  thirteen years, Mr. Franklin served on the board of examiners, and assisted
  in examining applicants for teacher's certificates. In 1876, he conducted the
  examination of the Phillipsburg Soldiers' Orphan's School for the state. He
  also made a creditable showing of school work at the Centennial Exposition at
  Philadelphia in 1876, receiving the strong commendation of the authorities who
  passed upon the work. Mr. Franklin has assisted in examinations at the State
  Normal, at Edinboro, and also at Indiana State Normal Schools. Politically,
  our subject is a Republican and has always followed that party to victory or
  defeat.
    
    Mr. Franklin chose for his life partner, Martha Reed, a lady of rare
  intellectual attainments, who bore him two sons, Orrin H., a successful
  dentist, a sketch of whose life is
    
    BEAVER COUNTY  55
    
  also found in this publication; and Milo O., a machinist in the employ of the
  Union Drawn Steel Works. The subject of this narrative and his wife are devout
  worshippers in the Presbyterian church. Mr. Franklin has been elder and
  trustee of that denomination for fifteen years. He is still serving in that
  official capacity, and for nine years was superintendent of the Sabbath
  School.