Ben Franklin: A Legacy That Endures
When thinking about legacy that endures one cannot help but focus on Ben Franklin. He is known for many important things. However what really caught my attention is that his legacy to Boston began at his birth 317 years ago and continues to this day. The journey of his Boston legacy is one of curiosity, courage, foresight and commitment to civic responsibilities.
Franklin’s Birth and Early Life in Boston
Franklin was born on Milk Street, not far from the North End of Boston three hundred and nineteen years ago on January 17, 1706, and still his legacy endures in the City of Boston.
One of 17 children, he lived in Boston until age 17. Franklin attended Boston Latin School for two years and then dropped out at age 10 as he was unable to afford the cost of books. He joined his father’s business cutting wick for candles, filling the dipping mold for casting candles and going on errands. In his biography it is clear the job was actually much tougher than that. The tallow used to make the candles came from suet- the hard fat surrounding cattle and sheep kidneys. At age 10, smeared with filth, fat and blood he pushed carts filled with animal carcasses to his home then boiled it down for hours, then ladled the fat into molds, inserting the candle wick before hardening. His 12-hour day produced 250 candles and he hated it.
Franklin loved the sea and wanted to be a sailor but his older brother Josiah had been lost at sea on a voyage and his father prohibited it. While young, Boston was very much a part of Franklin’s life. In Boston Franklin loved to swim in the Charles River. Not many people at that time knew how to swim. At age 11 invented swim fins (now known as flippers) to make him swim faster in the Charles River because he realized that the size of people’s hands and feet determined how much water they could push when swimming. He strapped boards to his hands to extend the reach of his hands and feet, pushing more water and propelling him forward faster. To try to convince his father to let him go to sea, he taught himself to survive a shipwreck by swimming around Boston Harbor with a book filled suitcase strapped to his back. His father did not buy that argument and the sailing the seas as a trade was not in Franklin’s future.
Instead, he was apprenticed to his brother, James at age 12 to his printshop in Boston. He enjoyed printing, reading, editing, typesetting and delivering his brother’s newspaper One of the things Franklin enjoyed the most about Boston was its access to better books. However he had real issues with his brother James and after five years into the apprenticeship, Franklin broke his apprenticeship contract and moved to Philadelphia.
Franklin’s Legacy in His Will
Franklin believed he owed his education to his birthplace of Boston and his career to Philadelphia. In his Will and Codicil he wrote:
“Having myself been bred to a manual art, printing, in my native town he wrote and afterwards assisted to set up my business in Philadelphia by kind loans of money from two friends there, which was the foundation of my future, and of all the utility in life that may be ascribed to me, I wish to be useful even after my death, if possible, in forming and advising other young men, that may be serviceable to their country in both those towns.”
In Franklin’s will he left each city (Boston and Philadelphia) 1,000 pounds sterling money (the British sterling was the currency in Boston at the time) to be lent in small amounts to married skilled men under the age of 25 to start their own businesses. Men were to repay the loans after 10 years at the below market annual rate of 5%. No principal distributions were allowed for 100 years. Franklin believed that the secret was patience -even a low rate of return when compounded annually would create a windfall. Franklin expected civic minded bookkeepers to step forward to administer without the compensation the 10-year loans to tradesmen for two centuries. He added additional oversight for the Boston fund managers as Boston was not yet incorporated. The Boston fund was to be managed under the direction of the selectmen, united with the ministers of the oldest Episcopalian, Congregational and Presbyterian churches.
He requested that the loans commence one year after his death. The first loan was a 60-pound loan to a bricklayer named Daniel Tuttle guaranteed to be repaid in gold by a coppersmith and tradesman. Paul Revere’s son in law, silversmith Thomas Eayers received a 60-pound loan guaranteed by his father-in-law. (Eayers was only one of 2 Boston borrowers to default on the loan. He suffered a breakdown after the death of his wife). Other loans were made to glaziers, blacksmiths, cabinet makers, candlemakers, saddlers, shoemakers, jewelers, distillers, coopers and bakers.
In the 1800s the borrowers began to change and now included tailors, furriers, bookbinders and upholsterers. Franklin had hoped that these loans would encourage the borrowers to be civic minded and some of them did. In 1809 Charles Wells used a 100-pound note to launch his career as a successful builder. After repaying his loan and serving as City Alderman he became Boston’s fourth Mayor and served two terms. Mayor Wells extended Boston’s central streets, including Tremont Street which was lengthened to reach Roxbury, a separate town. Wells then because president of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association whose founder had been Paul Revere. The organization trained apprentices and established America’s first free public secondary school.
At the end of the first century his Will allowed the manager of the Boston fund (and the manager of the Philadelphia fund) to “lay out at their discretion 100,000 pounds in public works which may be judged of most general utility to the inhabitants, such as fortifications, bridges, aqueducts, public buildings, baths, pavements or whatever may make living in the town more convenient to its people and more agreeable to strangers”.
Over the following century the Franklin Fund in Boston faced many challenges. Traditional banks were willing to lend funds to men- and the men did not have to be under age 25 and married. Technology advanced and skilled craftsmen were being replaced by gears, steam and steel. Fewer tradesman applied for loans. Boston business owners increasingly wanted young workers to clerk in factories- not apprenticeships. Boston Fund Managers took the position they could now accumulate funds. Franklin’s descendants unsuccessfully sued challenging the way in which the Fund was being operated its legality (if they had prevailed the assets would return to his family). In the interim the Court froze the funds.
As Boston approached the 100th year after Franklin’s death, Boston’s Mayor, Union Army Surgeon Samuel Abbot Greer suggested the money be used to build a new public park. Boston issued bonds to purchase 527 acres of West Roxbury, to be known as Franklin Park with the intent that the bonds be repaid when the centennial disbursement occurred. Franklin Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, remains Boston’s largest public space but in the end because of lawsuits filed for mismanagement of his fund, not one penny of Frankin’s money was used for its purchase.
The court cases were decided and funds made available. 1n 1893 Boston was to receive $322,490. Applications for the use of these funds poured in. The applications included paying the debt incurred by the City to purchase the land for Franklin Park, machinery for Mechanic Arts High School, a surgical ward at Boston City Hospital. Funds for the Franklin Typographical Society for poor printers, the establishment of five bath houses, to care for the City’s trees, to build a monument for fireman, to erect playgrounds, to build an employment bureau, to build a library, to create a pension fund and to build a trade school.
A secret ballot was taken and the board of the Franklin Fund resolved to spend the money on the erection of a Franklin trades School. Lawsuits abounded and 13 years went by. In 1903 new Trustees were appointed and they came to a conclusion that the Fund could afford to purchase the construction of the trades school, but not cover its operating costs. MIT President Henry Pritchert, now a Fund Trustee added by a Judge in the litigation wrote to Andrew Carnegie in Scotland and asked if Carnegie could assist. In 1904 Carnegie agreed to match the Franklin Fund – with the condition that the school had to secularize. He forbid any imposition of religious belief. He had two additional conditions: that the school be an industrial school similar to Cooper Union in New York and that the City of Boston buy the land. The Legislature bought land in South Boston and in 1908 Boston’s Franklin Union opened, enrolling 533 students in its first class. Demand for the courses- such as principals of Telephone Operation, Electricity and gasoline engines were very popular. In 1917 Franklin Union was transferred into a National Army Training Detachment base. Men were trained to repair engines. Women were trained as field nurses.
Lawsuits continued because the City of Boston was to receive the second and final payment of the bequest in 1991 and City wanted a say in how the money was invested until then. In 1958 the state approved an Act to immediately cash out the Franklin gift now and use the money now as nuclear war could happen. The Massachusetts Supreme Court struck this and the Trustee’s attempt to use the money to meet payroll of the school down and demanded the Trustees adhere to the Codicil and find loan recipients. The Boston Trustees opened it up to medical residents who needed financial assistance to open their own practices. They loaned up to $8,000 to residents at area hospitals and to fourth hear medical students at local medical schools including Harvard, Tufts and Boston University. By 1967, 1749 Boston medical students had funded a portion of their studies with Ben Franklin money and by 1979 one fourth of Tufts class received a Franklin loan.
In 1991, the Mayor of Boston announced formation of a 10-person commission for the future of the Franklin Fund. The trade school was now insolvent. The President of the Massachusetts Senate added a clause within an appropriation bill that granted the state’s $3,4million share of Franklin’s gift to the creation of a permanent endowment for the Franklin’s school maintenance, extension or use. Four months later the Mayor of Boston argued the city should also donate its share of the money it was to receive from the Franklin Fund to the school, given the school’s total contribution to the community over the last 100 years.
In 2019 the institute sold its 1908 campus and moved to Roxbury (Nubian Square) to be closer to the neighborhoods in which many of its students lived. In February 2022, the college received a $12,5 million gift from the Cummings Foundation to advance its work in creating technical career pathways for students typically underrepresented in post-secondary education. In recognition of the gift (nearly equivalent to the school’s annual operating budget) the college was renamed Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology.
Conclusion: A Legacy That Continues
Ben Franklin’s legacy is undeniably one of the most enduring in American history. From his early days in Boston to his lasting impact on the civic and educational landscape, Franklin’s vision continues to inspire and benefit generations. His commitment to education, civic responsibility, and the betterment of society has left a lasting mark, ensuring his legacy will endure for centuries to come.
There are certainly not many legacies as impactful or as enduring as his.