Ben Franklin, Texas

Ben Franklin, Texas
Unincorporated community
Ben Franklin United Methodist Church in October 2015
Ben Franklin Ben Franklin
Coordinates: 33°28′35″N 95°46′07″W
Country	United States
State	Texas
County	Delta
Elevation	486 ft (148 m)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code(s)	903 & 430
GNIS feature ID	1351867

Ben Franklin is an unincorporated community in Delta County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 75 in 2000.

History

Named for Benjamin Simmons's son, the hamlet was situated on his land grant. The Simmons family was one of the first to settle in the area, arriving around 1835 together with the Birdwells and Hogues. Isaac B. Nelson opened the first post office in 1853 in his one-room cottage at the intersection. At the time, the Wynn and Donaldson distillery, the Greenville Smith sawmill, and cotton gins were all supported by the locals in Lamar County. Taliaferro B. Chaffin gave a Methodist Episcopal church two acres in 1854. Smith's sawmill supplied the materials used by the citizens to construct the building. The pastor received a $190 yearly salary from the distillery through the selling of whiskey. After closing in 1859, the post office reopened in 1867. B. F. Nidever started a stage route to the county seat and opened the first livery stable in 1870. The town had 200 residents by 1884 and three mail delivery days per week. The main industries were the shipping and ginning of cotton, although there were also two flour mills, a feed mill, three sawmills, and a shingle company. In addition, the town featured three general stores, a restaurant, an apothecary shop, a blacksmith shop, and the McGinnis and Company bar. Ben Franklin became a stop on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway by 1889 after a track was constructed approximately north of the settlement in 1886. There were two livery stables, two hotels, a telegraph office, and a population of 1,000 in 1890. P. H. Snodgrass painted signs, and John McFall built a supermarket. New Adventist, Christian, and Baptist churches were open to the public. Ben Franklin had encouraged the opening of two new hotels, an office for a doctor, and a barbershop in the town in 1892. Harvey McIntyre, the constable, and J. N. Carroll, the justice of the peace, made up the municipal government. The current location of the Methodist Episcopal church was given by John W. Jackson and his wife in 1898. With terminals at Enloe, Klondike, and Horton, the Texas-Midland Railroad was constructed through Cooper, the county seat, in 1895. Most of the traffic from Ben Franklin came from these villages that were closer to the center. The population had dropped to 343 by 1904. There were just two companies left in 1912. In 1925, the town had 300 residents and no businesses. There was a bank there and 500 residents in 1929. By 1936 the town boasted three churches, seven businesses, and a population of 300. The railway was now a part of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe system. There were seven enterprises and 250 residents in 1945. There was a water tank, two churches, two cemeteries, one shop, the post office, and 150 residents in Ben Franklin in 1964. A Ben Franklin Community Center existed by 1970. Fremman's Grocery was the only business in Ben Franklin in 1976. There were 75 residents in 1990. In 2000, the hamlet reported five enterprises, while the population stayed the same. It was still 75 in 2010 and 2017.

The local Methodist church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

On April 2, 1957, an F2 tornado destroyed six homes and damaged several others in Ben Franklin. Two people were injured and losses totaled $25,000. This and a previous event may have belonged to the same family. Grazulis listed the tornado as the same as the Ambia–Harmon F2s, considering all three to be a 30-mile-long (48 km) F3 event. One death was reported.

Geography

Ben Franklin is located at the intersection of Farm to Market Roads 38 and 128 on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, 4 mi (6.4 km) northeast of Pecan Gap, 11 mi (18 km) north of Cooper, 16 mi (26 km) southwest of Paris, and 77 mi (124 km) northeast of Dallas in northwestern Delta County.

Education

The settlement's first school was likely founded soon after the Civil War and was taught by Mary Dinnie in the unoccupied side of a double log feed crib. Two years later, a new, not particularly elaborate facility was built, and a man by the name of Moore began teaching there. Ben Franklin was a school district by 1884. The school's principal in 1892 was E. Hammond. There were two schools listed in the 1918 records: one for White students and one for Black students. The school was still open in 1936. By 1970, the Ben Franklin school district had been merged into Fannin County's Fannindel Independent School District.

Notable people

• Paula "Polly" Holladay, mother of six children, competed on the second season of Hell's Kitchen in 2006.
• George Patterson, Democratic member of the 20th Texas Legislature.
• Floyd Weaver, Major League Baseball pitcher.