Benjamin Joseph Franklin (1834-1898) - Arizona's 12th Territorial Governor

 

PCA Archives

Benjamin Joseph Franklin was born in Kentucky.  By 1860, he was practicing law in Leavenworth, Kansas.  At the outbreak of the Civil War, Franklin, a Southern sympathizer, moved to Missouri so that he could enlist in the Confederate Army.  He served for the duration of the war, rising to the rank of captain. 

Since Franklin had been an officer, he was forbidden to practice law or hold public office after the war until he had taken an oath of allegiance. From 1865 to 1868, he farmed in Columbia, Missouri.  After taking the oath of allegiance in 1868, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and opened a law office.

Franklin was married to Anne Barbour Johnston, stepdaughter of Alfred William Morrison, previously the treasurer of the state of Missouri.  From 1871 to 1875, Franklin was the prosecuting attorney for Jackson County.  In 1875, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives and served two terms before returning to his private law practice.

In 1885, Franklin travelled to Washington, D. C., where he successfully lobbied President Grover Cleveland for an appointment as U. S. Consul to China.  His family accompanied him to Hankow, where they lived for the next five years

In 1890, the Franklins returned to California.  By 1892, they were in Phoenix.  Aware of efforts to have territorial governor Hughes removed from office, Franklin decided to seek the office himself.  He persuaded several prominent local men to send letters on his behalf to President Cleveland.  Cleveland responded by appointing him the twelfth territorial governor of Arizona on 18 April 1896.  Franklin’s son Alfred served as his personal secretary.

During his term in office, Franklin pushed for statehood and tax reform, feeling that many businesses and individuals were not paying their fair share of taxes.  Although as a fiscal conservative he was averse to soliciting funds from Congress, he knew that only the federal government could build the dams that Arizona so desperately needed.  In January 1897, Franklin had suffered a heart attack but recovered through “sheer force of will”.

After Republican William McKinley was elected President, he replaced Franklin with a man of his own party, Myron Hawley McCord.  On 22 July 1897, Franklin left office and returned to his private law practice in the Fleming building, with Alfred as his partner.  Franklin is generally regarded as having been personally honest and competent although not particularly effective as a governor, given his short tenure.

After he left office, Franklin’s health declined further.  When he did not wake from a nap on 19 May 1898, it was determined that he had died of a recurrence of his heart trouble.  He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery following an Episcopalian funeral service.

-by Donna Carr

 

Dr. Edward Nathan Gerard (1834-1904) - Physician and Surgeon

 

Photograph attached to Gerard’s Find A Grave memorial, #50912700

Edward Nathan Gerard was born in Rensselaer, Ralls County, Missouri, in 1834.   He was the youngest child of William Gerard and his second wife, Elizabeth Ann Ayres.  The Gerards had moved to Missouri around 1814.  By 1850, William was successful farmer, with an estate reportedly worth about $3000.  He went on to be elected to the Missouri State Legislature.

 On June 18, 1857, Edward married Priscilla Drane in Marion, Missouri.

Determined to go into the medical profession, Edward studied first with Dr. J. B. Hayes, a local physician.  Then he moved to Keokuk, Iowa, to study at the University of Iowa Medical School.   His wife Priscilla seems to have remained in Rensselaer, as their three oldest children were all born in Missouri.  After Edward graduated in 1861, the Gerards settled on a farm near Monroe City, Missouri.  To date, no evidence has been found of Edward serving during the Civil War.

In June, 1864, the Gerards moved to the town of Shelbina, where Dr. Gerard opened an office.  He took Dr. Jacob D. Smith into his practice in 1873, a partnership that lasted until 1876.   Gerard was said to be an able surgeon, and he was active in local medical societies.

Dr. Gerard practiced medicine in Missouri until 1895.  Then, their children grown, the Gerards moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where Gerard continued to see patients at his office on Washington Street, in the Irvine Block.

In 1900, Dr. Gerard returned to Missouri and brought back with him his son William Wilson Gerard, a schoolmaster who had contracted tuberculosis.  At this point, the Gerard family relocated to Mesa.  Unfortunately, William did not recover; he died on November 9, 1903, and was buried in Rosedale Cemetery.

Dr. Gerard’s health was deteriorating, too.  He died in Mesa of chronic cystitis on March 18, 1904.  The funeral took place at Trinity Episcopal Church in Phoenix, followed by interment in the family plot in Rosedale. 

After Gerard’s widow Priscilla died February 20, 1913, in Oakland, California, her remains were brought back to Phoenix for burial.  In 1920, family members had all three burials removed to Greenwood Cemetery.

 -by Donna L. Carr