BIO: Orrin H. 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. 105-106.
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DR. ORRIN H. FRANKLIN, whose portrait is presented on the opposite page, is
a leading and successful dentist of Beaver Falls, where he has been engaged in
the practice of his profession for many years; he is a practical man and has a
shrewd eye for improvements and new adaptations in his profession. Almost his
entire time not devoted to practice, is spent in study, and his friends and
admirers are satisfied that he will yet win a name that will rank high in the
world of science; even the few that are slow to take up with any new thing, no
matter how meritorious, concede that his success is something wonderful. Dr.
Franklin is a son of Benjamin and Martha (Reed) Franklin, and was born in
Industry township, Beaver county, Pa., February 3, 1859. He received a good
common school training; after leaving school he learned the trade of a cooper
and keg maker, commencing at about the age of fifteen years, with the firm of
M. T. & U. S. Kennedy.
Young Franklin was quick and handy with tools, having much natural ability
in that direction, and soon became an expert kegmaker; he worked at that
trade for four or five years, receiving at first but 30 cents per day. It was
his ambition to fit himself for something better, and to this end he applied
himself with an ardor that has been followed by very successful results. By
strict attention to business and by economy, he saved enough money while in
the cooper business to carry him through college. After studying for two
years with Dr. A. M. Whisler, of New Brighton, one of the oldest
practitioners of the county, he entered the Pennsylvania Dental College of
Philadelphia, completing the course February 25, 1882. Immediately after his
graduation, Dr. Franklin located in New Brighton and practiced dentistry
there for four years, securing a liberal patronage. In the meantime, Dr.
Franklin had opened up a branch office at Beaver Falls, where he also
practiced dentistry a part of his time. At the end of his fourth year he had
opportunity to sell the business at New Brighton for a satisfactory
consideration, and was induced to dispose of his interests at that place and
devote his whole attention and time to the practice of his profession in
Beaver Falls, which, by that time, had increased to extensive proportions.
Dr. Franklin is a conscientious gentleman and is very highly regarded
wherever he is known. His professional ability is recognized and the high
position he occupies in the estimation of the citizens of Beaver Falls is
well merited. He is a member of the Odontological Society of Pittsburg.
Dr. Franklin was married to Lucy Thorn-
106 BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES
ley, an accomplished lady, September 30, 1885. One son, Benjamin, resulted
from this union.
Benjamin Franklin, father of the subject of these lines, was a native of
the state of New York, and was reared and educated in Ohio, whither he had
been taken. He subsequently located in Beaver county, Pa., and adopted the
profession of teaching, to which he has devoted his energies since that time;
he now has the distinction of being the oldest teacher in Beaver county. He is
spending his declining years at New Brighton, in charge of a school. He ranks
high among the ablest instructors in Western Pennsylvania and has served two
terms of three years each, as superintendent of schools of Beaver county. He
has always taken a leading part in the educational development of the county,
being an advocate of good schools and competent teachers as the best means of
suppressing lawlessness, and making honorable citizens, and true men and
women. He and his good wife were blessed with two children, the elder of whom
is the subject of this biography, and the younger, Milan O., resides with his
father, in New Brighton, and occupies a position in the Union Drawn Steel
Works.