Benjamin Franklin was
born February 1, 1812, in what is now Belmont County, Ohio, nearly
opposite to Wheeling, West Virginia. He was descended in the fourth
generation from a brother of the philosopher, Dr. Benjamin
Franklin. When he was near twenty-one years of age he came with his
father's family to Henry County, Indiana, and settled about
three miles south of Middletown. Here he met, soon after, and
married, Miss Mary Personet. There were born to them eleven
children, nine of whom lived to be men and women.
While with his father
he became a skilled cabinet maker and followed this until he left
off all manual labor and gave himself to preaching.
Joseph and Isabelle
Franklin were members of the Protestant Methodist church and were
people of strong faith. But in their new home there was no
Protestant Methodist church. In 1834 Samuel Rogers, from Kentucky,
moved into the community and became a neighbor of the Franklins.
Mr. Rogers at once began to preach to the people in a school house.
There was such strong prejudice against what they called
"Campbellism" as to cause the closing of the school house
against him. Mr. Franklin had this prejudice also; but he felt a
sense of injustice done to his neighbor, and gave him sympathy and
support. The result was that he soon became convinced that Mr.
Rogers was preaching true gospel, and became a member of the new
church which was organized that same year. Altogether there were
about forty, who, "believing, were baptized." Among these
were Benjamin, Josiah, Daniel and Joseph Franklin, Jr., and John I.
Rogers, son of Samuel Rogers. All of these became preachers. Josiah
and Joseph Franklin died quite early. The others all lived to give
thirty-five years or more to the ministry. There was a younger
brother, David Franklin, who became a Christian half a dozen years
later and gave his life thereafter to the ministry.
Benjamin Franklin
went into the Restoration with all the zeal that characterized this
work in Kentucky and Indiana. He began to speak in public
immediately after his baptism and in less than a year was filling
appointments at sundry places. He was always more of an evangelist
than a minister. Even while acting as the regular minister of
churches, which he did much of the time for twenty years, he would
find occasions for holding "protracted meetings," and was
always successful in such work.
During the last half
of his public ministry he was in the evangelistic field
exclusively. He kept no record of converts, but estimated that he
had led about seven thousand persons into "the obedience of
faith." In this work he traveled over most of the central
states, and made many journeys into Eastern and Western states, and
into three provinces of the Dominion of Canada. In his early years
he made several changes of residence, living at two places in Henry
County and three in Wayne County, Indiana. From 1850 to 1864 he
lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. From 1864 till the year of his death,
1878, he lived in Anderson, Indiana. His body lies in an Anderson
cemetery. [420]
In 1845, while living at Centerville, Indiana, he began his
editorial career. He bought a small printing office from Daniel K.
Winder, who had for two years published from New Paris, Ohio, a
small monthly called the Reformer. The paper was changed
into a sixteen page pamphlet and was numbered "Vol. III."
It was issued from Centerville for two years and then transferred
to Milton, in the same county. About the same time he bought of
Alexander Hall, The Gospel Proclamation, which Mr. Hall
had been conducting for two years at Loydsville, Ohio, The two
periodicals were merged and issued thereafter as the
Proclamation and Reformer, containing sixty-four pages.
After another two years the paper and its editor went to Hygeia,
Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, where Elder D. S. Burnet was
conducting a school for young ladies and at the same time
conducting a paper called the Christian Age. The two
editors formed a partnership, and for a time issued the two
periodicals. This arrangement was unsatisfactory and in a little
while the interests of both were united in The Christian
Age, and removed to Cincinnati, where it became the property
of "The Christian Publication Society." Soon after these
changes Benjamin Franklin withdrew from the paper, promising not to
issue any periodical for two years. In 1856 he started the
American Christian Review, of which he continued to be the
editor until his death, in 1878.
By the time of his
last editorial venture the discussion between radicals and
conservatives (often called "progress" and "old
fogies.") was on. The editor of the American Christian
Review was ultra conservative, and was easily the leader on
that side. The periodical grew wonderfully and distanced all
competitors for several years. The great Civil War of the sixties,
was the first thing to weaken its influence. Thereafter the tide
turned against the editor. He made heroic efforts and worked
incessantly, editing the Review, holding evangelistic
meetings in many states and in Canada and carrying on an immense
correspondence. Ten years before his death he was an invalid, and
should have closed his editorial work. But his partisan friends
would not hear of it. They christened his paper the "Old
Reliable," and insisted that it was the only hope of saving
the Restoration. Their insistence held him to the work until his
magnificent physical constitution was wrecked, and he died
prematurely when some months less than sixty-seven years of
age.
The writing and
publishing of two volumes of his best sermons, "The Gospel
Preacher, Volumes I and II," contributed in no small degree to
his physical break down. But these volumes contained his best work,
and have had a very wide circulation. About half a dozen of his
oral debates were printed in book form. Perhaps the tract entitled,
"Sincerity Seeking the Way to Heaven," had the widest
circulation of anything from his pen. It is still in print, (1903)
and many copies are sold every year.
Although the
American Christian Review was always issued from
Cincinnati, Mr. Franklin, in 1864, moved his family to Anderson,
Indiana. In the third year of the Review, Geo. W. Rice
became a full and equal partner, and was thereafter the general
business manager, contributing largely to its success. The firm was
known under the title of "Franklin and Rice."
John T. Brown, ed.
Churches of Christ (1904)
[From the website:
www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/jtbrown/coc/COC1311.HTM]
