PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN BENJAMIN “VERSE-MAKERS WERE GENERALLY BEGGARS” FRANKLIN1 Son of so-and-so and so-and-so, this so-and-so helped us to gain our independence, instructed us in economy, and drew down lightning from the clouds. “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY 1. Franklin was distantly related to Friend Lucretia Mott, as was John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Adams, and Octavius Brooks Frothingham. HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN WALDEN: In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this PEOPLE OF it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main WALDEN difference. We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking. I should not talk so much about myself if there were any body else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WALDEN: But all this is very selfish, I have heard some of my PEOPLE OF townsmen say. I confess that I have hitherto indulged very little WALDEN in philanthropic enterprises. I have made some sacrifices to a sense of duty, and among others have sacrificed this pleasure also. There are those who have used all their arts to persuade me to undertake the support of some poor family in town; and if I had nothing to do, –for the devil finds employment for the idle,– I might try my hand at some such pastime as that. However, when I have thought to indulge myself in this respect, and lay their Heaven under an obligation by maintaining certain poor persons in all respects as comfortably as I maintain myself, and have even ventured so far as to make them the offer, they have one and all unhesitatingly preferred to remain poor. While my townsmen and women are devoted in so many ways to the good of their fellows, I trust that one at least may by spared to other and less humane pursuits. You must have a genius for charity as well as for any thing else. As for Doing-good, that is one of the professions which are full. Moreover, I have tried it fairly, and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution. Probably I should not consciously and deliberately forsake my particular calling to do the good which society demands of me, to save the universe from annihilation; and I believe that a like but infinitely greater steadfastness elsewhere is all that now preserves it. But I would not stand between any man and his genius; and to him who does this work, which I decline, with his whole heart and soul and life, I would say, Persevere, even if the world call it doing evil, as it is most likely they will. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN WALDEN: I am not sure that I ever heard the sound of cock-crowing PEOPLE OF from my clearing, and I thought that it might be worth the while WALDEN to keep a cockerel for his music merely, as a singing bird. The note of this once wild Indian pheasant is certainly the most remarkable of any bird’s, and if they could be naturalized without being domesticated, it would soon become the most famous sound in our woods, surpassing the clangor of the goose and the hooting of the owl; and then imagine the cackling of the hens to fill the pauses when their lords’ clarions rested! No wonder that man added this bird to his tame stock, –to say nothing of the eggs and drumsticks. To walk in a winter morning in a wood where these birds abounded, their native woods, and hear the wild cockerels crow on the trees, clear and shrill for miles over the resounding earth, drowning the feebler notes of other birds, –think of it! It would put nations on the alert. Who would not be early to rise, and rise earlier and earlier every successive day of his life, till he became unspeakably healthy, wealthy, and wise? This foreign bird’s note is celebrated by the poets of all countries along with the notes of their native songsters. All climates agree with brave Chanticleer. He is more indigenous even than the natives. His health is ever good, his lungs are sound, his spirits never flag. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1657 December 23, Wednesday (Old Style): Josiah Franklin (the father of Benjamin Franklin) was born in Ecton, Northamptonshire, England, the ninth and last child of Thomas Franklin, farmer and blacksmith, and Jane White Franklin. After Jane’s death Thomas would remarry — and create more children. HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1667 August 15, Thursday: Abiah Folger (the mother of Benjamin Franklin) was born on Nantucket Island, the ninth and last child of Peter Folger, a schoolmaster and a miller, and Mary Morrils Folger.2 2. Ben, worlds apart in attitude, would be distantly related by blood to Friend Lucretia Mott of Nantucket. HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1683 July: Proprietor William Penn ordered the establishment of a postoffice and put Henry Waldy of Tekonay in charge, “to supply passengers with horses from Philadelphia to New Castle, or to the Falls.” The post was to be carried once a week, and postal rates were to be published “on the meeting-house door, and other public places”: • A letter from the Falls to Philadelphia 3d • A letter from the Falls to Chester 5d • A letter from the Falls to New Castle 7d • A letter from the Falls to Maryland 9d • A letter from Philadelphia to Chester 2d • A letter from Philadelphia to New Castle 4d • A letter from Philadelphia to Maryland 6d Sometime in the second half of 1683, Josiah Franklin, Ann Child Franklin, and their initial three children emigrated from Banbury, Oxfordshire to Boston, Massachusetts. HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1685 August 23, Sunday (Old Style): Josiah Franklin (half-brother of Benjamin Franklin) was born in Boston (this was the brother who “Went to sea, never heard of”). September 27, Thursday (Old Style): Josiah Franklin (father of Benjamin Franklin) professed his faith and was admitted to membership in the Third or Old South Church in Boston. Josiah took up residence in Milk Street in 1685, renting a house from Nathaniel Reynolds on which Simeon Stoddard held a mortgage. Thomas Minns speculated that Josiah rented a shop at 339-341 Washington Street (the site of the land in 1906) at the same time that he rented the Milk Street house: “the fact that he [Josiah Franklin] could obtain a house and a shop so near together may have determined the place of his residence.” HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1687 January 5, Wednesday (1686, Old Style): Ann(e) Franklin (half-sister of Benjamin Franklin) was born in Boston (married July 10, 1712, William Harris; deceased June 16, 1729). John Evelyn’s diary entry for this day was in part as follows: The French K[ing] now sayd to be healed or rather patch’d up of the fistula in Ano,3 for which HUGUENOTS he had ben severall times cut: &c: The persecution still raging: I was to heare the Musique of the Italians in the new Chapel, now first of all opned at White- hall publiquely for the Popish Service: Nothing can be finer than the magnificent Marble work & Architecture at the End, where are 4 statues representing st. Joh[n] st. Petre, st. Paule, & the Church, statues in white marble, the worke of Mr. Gibbons, with all the carving & Pillars of exquisite art & greate cost: The history or altar piece is the Salutation, The Volto, in fresca, the Asumption of the blessed Virgin according to their Traditions with our B[lessed] Saviour, & a world of figures, painted by Verio. The thrones where the K[ing] & Q[ueen] sits is very glorious in a Closset above just opposite to the Altar: Here we saw the Bishop in his Miter, & rich 3. Rectal ulcer. King Louis XIV of France had been suffering from an anal fistula for at least a year. Initially they tried a poultice that wasn’t seeming to help and that summer the condition of the monarch’s butt became the talk of the French court. He called for other sufferers to report their own experience, and dispatched them to various spas to try the waters and report back to him. When he finally agreed to surgery the royal surgeon, Charles Felix de Tassy, who had never performed such an operation, decided to get in some practice first, on butts of lesser moment. After a couple of unfortunate deaths and a series of successful operations, the surgeon had gained enough confidence that on November 18, 1686 he had the King drop his drawers and assumed the position. The cutting was performed in the presence of the monarch’s mistress, the chief minister, and entire medical staff. A special curved scalpel had been fashioned for the occasion. Only an hour after the cutting the King was conducting state business from his bed, and in a few months the wound healed. The bold surgeon would be granted an estate and a pile of money.