He had the distinction of fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War, despite his famous name. He is probably more renowned for claiming ancestry to the great Benjamin Franklin of Colonial America fame, than he is for anything during his administration as governor of Arizona.
He was born in Mason County, Kentucky near Maysville around 1839 to Charles W. and Elizabeth Ricketts Franklin. He attended Bethany College in West Virginia from 1849-1851. He was a practicing attorney in Leavenworth, Kansas at the outbreak of the Civil War. He joined the Confederacy under General Bragg as a private during the war. Afterward, he was a farmer near Columbia, Missouri and returned to law after repatriation in 1868. In 1871 he was an attorney, for the 24rth Judicial Circuit and then a member of the House of Representatives from Missouri from 1875-1879 as a Democrat. After much persistence for an appointment by the president, he was made US Consul to China 1885-1889. He settled in Los Angeles, California and later moved to Phoenix in 1892 and was later admitted to practice law in December. He was part of a group of people who tried to remove Governor Hughes from office. When the scheme against Hughes succeeded, Franklin himself was appointed to the governorship in April of 1892.
He believed that all Arizona needed was irrigation and statehood. He opened his Annual Report with a plea for statehood, and a reform of the tax system, in which he felt people and the railroad companies escaped taxes that was costing the government money. His administration is most noted for over-legislation, with 320 bills sent to him by the territorial legislature, he signed only 88 of them. He simplified the livestock laws, but railroads were given more power when they were exempted from taxation. In January of 1887 he suffered a heart attack and nearly died. He was recalled from office on July 22, 1897. He opened a law practice after his term. He would later die suddenly from a heart attack on May 19, 1898 in Phoenix. He is buried at Rosedale Cemetery in Phoenix.
Information from two sources:
Wagoner, Jay J. Arizona Territory, 1863-1912; a political history. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1970
Goff, John S. Arizona
Territorial Officials Volume 2. Arizona Black Mountain
Press, Cave Creek, 1975
Chapter 12
Websites
Biographical Directory of the United States
Congress- Benjamin Franklin
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=F000343
Political Graveyard
http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/franklin.html#R9M0IXBDV
Books/Manuscripts
Biography of Benjamin Franklin
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