On this day in 1790 founding father Benjamin Franklin died.
The short-lived State of Franklin, located in what’s now the eastern part of Tennessee, was named for Benjamin Franklin (originally named Frankland, it was intended to include far southwest Virginia, until Patrick Henry passed a law forbidding new states to be created from Virginia territory). The first governor of Franklin, John Sevier, wrote to Mr. Franklin in 1787 trying to get his support for the new state, but Franklin declined, replying:
“I am sensible of the honor which your Excellency and your council thereby do me. But being in Europe when your State was formed, I am too little acquainted with the circumstances to be able to offer you anything just now that may be of importance since everything material that regards your welfare will doubtless have occurred to yourselves. … I will endeavor to inform myself more perfectly of your affairs by inquiry and searching the records of Congress and if anything should occur to me that I think may be useful to you, you shall hear from me thereupon.
Benjamin Franklin was 84 years old.