BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

How does one begin to write about such a man?  Franklin is such an important part of the formation of this Republic, although he was not at the Concord bridge.  He was not at Bunker Hill.  Nor was he at Valley Forge that winter of 1776.  Franklin never carried a musket into battle, so why does he stand out from the crowd?
Let us start at the beginning.  Franklin was born in Boston in 1706 to a Puritan father who emigrated from England in 1682, married and began a life in his new Country.  Not well schooled and not a farmer he became a soap-boiler and tallow-chandler.
Franklin's parents wanted him to become a minister but with no funds for school so he became an apprentice to a printer and got quite good at the job.
After a falling out with his brother Franklin boarded a ship bound for New York hoping to find work.  That proved fruitless so he walked to Philadelphia where he arrived without a dollar in his pocket.  But there he was able to land a job with one of the two newspapers there.  In his spare time Franklin read everything he could get his hands on and, at the age of 26, he began publishing "Poor Richards Almanac".  It was widely read in the Colonies as well as England and even translated in several European countries.
Franklin became official printer for Pennsylvania and then, in 1736, appointed Clerk of the General Assembly.  He treated with the Indians to oppose the French and aided General Braddock in that effort.
Franklin spent much time and effort on the Colonies behalf and was well thought of in England and on the Continent.  He was received into the courts of kings; everyone knew Franklin and loved him.
It can be said that, next to Washington himself, Benjamin Franklin did more to bring independence from the King's rule and to form this Republic than anyone else, even though he never fired a shot nor marched in formation....Medicineman!