Apr

17

American Minute - Anniversary of the Death of a Poor Candle-Maker’s Son

April 17, 2008 | By PA Pundits |

American Minute with William J. Federer

April 17th

On APRIL 17, 1790, the son of a poor candle-maker died.

The 15th of 17 children, he apprenticed as a printer, and published a popular almanac.

He retired at age 42, and then taught himself five languages, invented the rocking chair, bifocal glasses, and the lighting rod, which earned him degrees from Harvard and Yale.

He helped found the University of Pennsylvania, a hospital, America’s first postal system and fire department.

He became the governor of Pennsylvania, signed the Declaration of Independence and called for prayer at the Constitutional Convention. He was also president of America’s first anti-slavery society.

His name was Benjamin Franklin.
In his Poor Richard’s Almanac, May 1757, Franklin wrote: “Work as if you were to live 100 years; pray as if you were to die tomorrow.”

In a pamphlet for Europeans titled “Information to Those Who Would Remove to America,” 1754, Franklin wrote: “Atheism is unknown there; Infidelity rare and secret; so that persons may live to a great age in that country without having their piety shocked by meeting with either an Atheist or an Infidel. And the Divine Being seems…pleased to favor the whole country.”

Read more excellent articles from

Sphere: Related Content

Tagged with , , , , , , |

Filed Under: American Heros, Around Pennsylvania, Christian, Declaration of Independence, GOD, News of the Day, PA Pundits

Trackback URL


Comments

Comments are closed.

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind

If your comment/trackback doesn't show up, please refer to the Comment & Trackback Policy Page.

Bad Behavior has blocked 8632 access attempts in the last 7 days.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.

This site is created and edited using Dreamweaver 8.
Posts are created using Windows Live Writer.
We suggest viewing this site using Firefox at 1280 x 1024.