A Philadelphia Story. Lori Litchman
manage his money ended up stealing from him. Litigation followed and lasted for years before the matter was settled. Penn suffered from a stroke in 1712 and died on July 30, 1718. He was 73 years old and never had the opportunity to return to his beloved Pennsylvania. Even though Penn died a pauper, he left his colony in the care of his sons, John, Thomas, Richard, and Dennis, who hung on to the land until the American Revolution.
During the Revolutionary War, John Penn sided with the American cause. However, the Penn family lost its proprietorship over all of their land and were prohibited from participating in the new government established after the separation from England. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania paid John, his brother Richard, and a cousin 130,000 pounds. The Penn family was able to hold onto several thousand acres of land across Pennsylvania that were passed down for several generations.
James Logan, Penn’s right-hand man
(Unknown artist; via Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
Leading Ladies: Hannah Callowhill Penn
HANNAH CALLOWHILL PENN was William Penn’s second wife. The two tied the knot in 1696, two years after the death of Penn’s first wife, Gulielma Maria Springett. Hannah was 26 when she arrived in Philadelphia with her husband in December 1699. She was pregnant with the couple’s first child, named John and always referred to as “The American.” She and Penn had eight children together, three of whom died as infants.
Hannah Penn, second wife of William Penn and first woman governor of Pennsylvania
(Unknown artist; via Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
It was Hannah Penn’s ability to manage affairs that became her legacy. In 1712, William Penn became incapacitated by a stroke, making his wife the acting proprietor of Pennsylvania. Hannah managed Pennsylvania from across the Atlantic until her death in 1726. She worked closely with James Logan, Penn’s right-hand man, to help her.
After William Penn died in 1718, Hannah successfully dealt with her husband’s debt, managed his estate, and settled a land dispute with Maryland. Hannah also battled with Penn’s surviving children from his first wife and ensured that her three sons, John, Thomas, and Richard, would inherit Pennsylvania.
In 2014, then-Governor Tom Corbett said it was time to correct history and acknowledge Hannah as Pennsylvania’s first female governor. A portrait of Hannah was commissioned to accompany the portraits of Pennsylvania’s other governors.
When Penn received his charter from the king in 1681, there were only a few hundred people living in the area now known as Philadelphia. By the time of his death, that number had exploded into the thousands. Penn’s “Holy Experiment” would also greatly influence the development of the government of the United States, and Philadelphia would serve as the home base and capital city for years to come.
PHILLY FACT In 1984, during the Reagan administration, an Act of Congress declared William Penn and his second wife, Hannah Callowhill Penn, honorary American citizens.
TO YOUR HEALTH
AS PHILADELPHIA’S POPULATION CONTINUED TO GROW, two separate classes were beginning to form: the elite class and the artisan class. A rhyme was even devised to help people remember all the members of the elite class: “Morris, Norris, Rush and Chew / Drinker, Dallas, Coxe and Pugh / Wharton, Pepper, Pennypacker / Willing, Shippen and Markoe.” By 1730, the population of Penn’s city was around 11,500. Out of that artisan class came Benjamin Franklin, a humble printer who moved to Philadelphia from Boston and would ultimately become better known than Penn and become involved in nearly every facet of colonial society. Arguably, without Ben Franklin and his ability to make friends and influence people, Philadelphia would be without numerous firsts, including a number of health Initiatives that would shape the culture of medicine and health care in early America and for generations to come.
Mr. Philadelphia
FRANKLIN WAS BORN IN 1706 IN BOSTON, came to Philadelphia as a teenager in 1723, and loved the city so much that he stayed. Throughout his life, he would become not only an iconic Philadelphian but also a founding father of the country and poster boy for the self-made man living the American dream. Franklin is best known as one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence and led a notable life as a politician and a statesman. He was a printer and publisher by trade; he owned the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper and garnered recognition for his publication of Poor Richard’s Almanack. He later became immersed in the sciences. One of his first inventions was the Franklin stove, a wood stove that was more efficient than the open fireplaces of the time period. Then later in life when his eyesight was failing, Franklin invented the bifocal lens.
PHILLY FACT “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” This quote is often attributed to Mr. Philadelphia himself, Ben Franklin, regarding his fondness for a good brew. Unfortunately, there is no documentation that he ever said it, and the evidence actually points to him favoring wine.
He was a voracious reader and wanted to share his love of books with his fellow Philadelphians, which helped facilitate the creation of the first lending library—The Library Company of Philadelphia. Thomas Cadwalader was also one of the founders of the Library Company. Franklin had previously gathered a group of like-minded men to meet on Friday nights to imbibe and discuss politics, morals, and science. The group was called the Junto (from the Spanish word for “together”), and together the men birthed The Library Company of Philadelphia. Back then, books were incredibly expensive, and only the elite could afford to have a large library. Franklin came up with an idea for the members of the Junto to gather their friends and ask all of them to share their collective wealth. Franklin asked 50 subscribers to donate 40 shillings each and commit to an annual donation of 10 shillings a year for the next 50 years. Penn’s secretary, James Logan, considered the “best judge of books in these parts,” helped pick out the first books to buy for the library. Logan himself had an enormous collection of books—4,000 of which his descendants bequeathed to the Library Company in 1795. The Library Company of Philadelphia exists today as an independent research library that is free and open to the public and specializes in American history and culture from the 17th through 19th centuries.
Benjamin Franklin, a Philadelphia original
(Painting by Joseph-Siffrein Duplessis; via Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
The Junto eventually became the wellspring of another scientific organization—the American Philosophical Society. In 1739, Philadelphia botanist John Bartram came up with the idea of starting a Junto-like club of “the most ingenious and curious men” who would gather together to discuss science. Bartram was not the people person that Franklin was, so he turned to his friend to help him gather support for the club. Franklin started the buzz for the proposed academy of “learned” men, and in May 1743, the American Philosophical Society (APS) was born. Many of the country’s founding fathers ultimately became members, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. Today, the APS is a museum open to the public that houses a collection of Franklin’s personal books, the journals of Lewis and Clark, and 800 letters from Charles Darwin.
In addition to his noble and scientific pursuits, Franklin was a key figure in numerous practical advances in early Philadelphia society that ultimately made the city safer