Benjamin Franklin (Restoration Movement)

Benjamin Franklin (February 1, 1812 – October 22, 1878) was an important conservative figure in the American Restoration Movement, especially as the leading antebellum conservative in the northern United States branch of the movement. He is notable as the early and lifelong mentor of Daniel Sommer, whose support of the 1889 Sand Creek Declaration set in motion events which led to the formal division of the Churches of Christ from the Disciples of Christ in 1906.

According to contemporary biographies "His early religious training was according to the Methodist faith, though he never belonged to any church until he united with the Disciples."

Born near present-day Belmont County, Ohio in 1812, Franklin was said to be a fourth-generation descendant of a brother of American Revolutionary War figure Benjamin Franklin, for whom he was named. He was the eldest son of a fairly big family.

When Franklin was near 21 years old, thus in late 1832 or early 1833, Franklin's father moved the family to farmland about three miles (5 km) south of Middletown in Henry County, Indiana. Franklin himself purchased 80 acres (320,000 m²).

In November 1834, pioneer Restoration Movement preacher and elder Samuel Rogers moved to the Falls of Rough Creek in Henry County from Kentucky, becoming a neighbor of the Franklin family.

Rogers began to preach Restoration Movement doctrine using a local schoolhouse to deliver his orations. He was quickly rejected as heretical by the Methodist leadership in the area: however, his family was sympthetic toward the neighbor and soon came under his theological influence. Franklin was baptised by full immersion in 1836 by Rogers near Middletown in Henry County, Indiana, along with many others who were baptised in the same meeting. (One source also credits Elijah Martindale in Franklin's conversion.) Of those baptised at this meeting, six or seven would go on to become preachers in the movement: Franklin, three of his brothers, Eider Adamson, John T. Rogers, and possibly another whose name was forgotten by one of Rogers' biographers.

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