Inside Ben Franklin’s final days (and final words) in Philly

Read about the final days of the most well-known American renaissance man, Ben Franklin.

As a founding father, Benjamin Franklin made a mark on the United States, but he’s pretty central to the story of Philadelphia, too. Franklin helped found the school that became the University of Pennsylvania, the Philly library system, a city fire department, and the first hospital in the colonies, and he generally helped shape the city we know and love today.

Ben Franklin died in Philadelphia 234 years ago. He was 84.

Ben Franklin’s final days

That the Renaissance man (see the previous for just a smidgeon of what he did) lived to 84 in a time when you might die from a blister on your finger was quite an accomplishment. But Franklin didn’t die of old age — pleurisy, or inflammation of lung tissue, took him. 

John Adams, who once roomed with Franklin and was annoyed when he refused to close the windows at night, wrote in his diary that Franklin must have died from the cold breeze coming in through the windows. Adams wrote that Franklin “caught the violent Cold, which finally choaked him, by sitting for some hours at a Window, with the cool Air blowing upon him.” It seems Adams did not forgive his fellow founding father for once forcing him to sleep through a chilly night.

While it may not have been because of his open windows, Franklin knew his time was coming. “My health continues much as it has been for some time, except that I grow thinner and weaker so that I cannot expect to hold out much longer,” he wrote to a friend in late 1789. 

He was gone the following spring, dying on April 17, 1790. Reportedly, his last words were, “A dying man can do nothing easy,” after his daughter, Sally, wanted him to move from an awkward position in his bed.

Philly says farewell to Ben Franklin

The funeral was massive. Back then, Philly’s population was 44,096, but Franklin’s funeral had 20,000 mourners — clearly the procession was the place to be that day, with marchers including city leaders and other politicians as well as printers (like Franklin had been) and members of the Franklin-founded American Philosophical Society.

Demonstrating his sense of humor, Franklin had written his own, amazing epitaph when he was younger. It read: 

The Body of
B. Franklin,
Printer;
Like the Cover of an old Book,
Its Contents torn out,
And stript of its Lettering and Gilding,
Lies here, Food for Worms.
But the Work shall not be wholly lost:
For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more,
In a new & more perfect Edition,
Corrected and amended
By the Author.
He was born Jan. 6. 1706.
Died  17

So good! He even included a placeholder for his death date, believing (correctly) he wouldn’t live to see 94. 

Unfortunately, the final epitaph on his tombstone — that you can visit at Philadelphia’s Christ Church Cemetery — was much more boring. It reads: “Benjamin and Deborah Franklin 1790.” (Alternate inscription: “Here lies Ben Franklin and his sense of humor.”)

Even France mourned him. And Thomas Jefferson tried to get Congress to dress in mourning clothes! (George Washington said no, believing it to be too English of a thing to do. And by 1790, this was America.)

Ben Franklin’s legacy

Franklin left his wealth to both Boston (his birthplace) and Philadelphia, with the restriction that the cities should invest the money to earn interest. He left $2,000 to Philly, which grew to about $2 million by 1990. The Franklin funds were used to establish The Franklin Institute as well as scholarships for trade school students.

Today, Ben Franklin impersonators abound, and there’s even a show on Apple TV+ about him, starring Michael Douglas.

You can visit the Franklin grave at Christ Church Cemetery by paying a small fee for a guided or self-guided tour, though you can also see the grave through the cemetery’s fence. Visitors to Franklin’s grave continue to throw pennies on his tombstone, in honor of the quotation credited to him (via his Poor Richard’s Alamack), “a penny saved is a penny earned”). 

We’ll disregard that throwing a penny away is not saving it, so nothing is earned with this tradition — except, of course, the satisfaction of a salute to one of Philly’s greatest.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.