Maysville Kentucky Had Its Own Ben Franklin
Benjamin J. Franklin was a descendant of the Ben Franklin and was born in Maysville, Kentucky in 1839. He taught school for some time before practicing law. Later he was elected to the Kentucky Senate but never actually served. Instead, he entered the Confederate Army at the outbreak of the Civil War as a private and was promoted to Captain by war's end. After the war he practiced law between two terms as Kentucky's Representative to Congress (1875-1879).
In 1890 he relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, and was appointed as Arizona's Territorial Governor a few years later. He served from April 18, 1896, to July 29, 1897. Arizona was not a state at the time and Franklin worked towards statehood while in office. He also supported the irrigation of dry Arizona lands and a taxation of the railroads. When he left office, railroads still escaped taxation, Arizona was still a territory, and the land was still arid, but he had only served a year. A heart attack forced him to leave office and return to practicing law. Within a year, he died of another heart attack.
posted at 2:45 PM by Jeremy Parnell 
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