Benjamin Franklin is initiated into the local…

Benjamin Franklin is initiated into the local Masonic Lodge in Philadelphia in 1731.

Franklin was born on Milk Street, in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706 and baptized at Old South Meeting House.

His father Josiah, a tallow chandler, a soap-maker and a candle-maker, had wanted Ben to attend school with the clergy, but had only had enough money to send him to school for two years.

He attended Boston Latin School but did not graduate; he continued his education through voracious reading.

Franklin’s schooling ended when he was ten.

He then worked for his father for a time and at twelve he became an apprentice to his brother James, a printer, who taught Ben the printing trade.

When Ben was fifteen, James founded The New-England Courant, which was the first truly independent newspaper in the colonies.

When denied the chance to write a letter to the paper for publication, Franklin adopted the pseudonym of "Mrs. Silence Dogood", a middle-aged widow.

"Mrs. Dogood"'s letters were published, and became a subject of conversation around town.

Neither James nor the Courant's readers were aware of the ruse, and James was unhappy with Ben when he discovered the popular correspondent was his younger brother.

Franklin left his apprenticeship without permission, and in so doing became a fugitive.

At age seventeen, Franklin ran away to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, seeking a new start in a new city.

When he first arrived, he worked in several printer shops around town.

However, he was not satisfied by the immediate prospects.

After a few months, while working in a printing house, Franklin was persuaded by Pennsylvania Governor Sir William Keith to go to London, ostensibly to acquire the equipment necessary for establishing another newspaper in Philadelphia.

Finding Keith's promises of backing a newspaper to be empty, Franklin worked as a typesetter in a printer's shop in what is now the Church of St. Bartholomew-the-Great in the Smithfield area of London.

Following this, he had returned to Philadelphia in 1726 with the help of Thomas Denham, a merchant who employed Franklin as clerk, shopkeeper, and bookkeeper in his business.

Franklin, twenty-one in 1727, had created the Junto, a group of "like minded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved their community."

The Junto is a discussion group for issues of the day; it subsequently will give rise to many organizations in Philadelphia.

Reading is a great pastime of the Junto, but books are rare and expensive.

The members create a library, initially assembled from their own books.

This does not suffice, however.

Franklin then conceives the idea of a subscription library, which will pool the funds of the members to buy books for all to read.

This is the birth of the Library Company of Philadelphia: its charter is composed by Franklin in 1731.

Franklin had returned to his former trade upon Denham's death in 1728, setting up a printing house in partnership with Hugh Meredith and the following year becoming the publisher of a newspaper called The Pennsylvania Gazette.

The Gazette gives Franklin a forum for agitation about a variety of local reforms and initiatives through printed essays and observations.

His commentary, and his adroit cultivation of a positive image as an industrious and intellectual young man, have earned him a great deal of social respect over time.