Sanborn, F. B. (Franklin Benjamin), 1831-1917

Author and journalist.

Massachusetts journalist.

American journalist and reformer.

Sanborn was an author, journalist, and philanthropist of Concord, Mass. He was an ardent abolitionist and champion of reforms in charity work, prisons, and insane asylums.

Sanborn was an author, journalist, and philanthropist of Concord, Mass. He was an ardent abolitionist and champion of reforms in charity work, prisons, and insane asylums. William Ellery Channing (1817-1901) was a poet and the first biographer of Henry David Thoreau. In his will, Channing left his papers to Sanborn.

John Brown was an abolitionist. He led a failed armed raid at Harpers Ferry, 1859.

American journalist and author.

Franklin Benjamin Sanborn was born in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire on 15 December 1831. He was the son of Aaron Sanborn, a farmer and town clerk, and Lydia (Leavitt) Sanborn. He entered Phillips Exeter Academy in 1851 and enrolled at Harvard College as a sophomore in 1852. Sanborn graduated from Harvard in 1855, seventh in his class. While a student there he began a friendship with Ralph Waldo Emerson, having read Emerson's works extensively. As a result of this relationship, Emerson engaged Sanborn to begin a small private school in Concord that was attended by Emerson's children, as well as those of Hawthorne, Henry James, Horace Mann, and John Brown. Touring the west during the summer of 1856 to report on the progress of Free-Soil agitation, Sanborn became acquainted with John Brown. He subsequently brought Brown back to Concord in 1857 and raised money for him. He also knew of Brown's planned attack on Harpers Ferry and as a result was asked to testify before a Senate committee during the Brown trial. When he refused, he was arrested and an attempt made to seize him. Sanborn's captors were presented with a writ of habeas corpus prepared by Judge Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar and chased out of town. The court ordered Sanborn discharged the following day. Sanborn closed his school in 1862 and became the editor of The Boston Commonwealth. In 1863 he was appointed secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Charities and over the next two decades was responsible for the passage of charity and penal legislation in Massachusetts and other states. Between 1865 and 1874 Sanborn helped to found the American Social Science Association, the Clarke School for the Deaf, the Massachusetts Infant Asylum, the National Prison Association, and the National Conference of Charities and Correction. In 1879 he was appointed General Inspector of Charities and held that position until 1888. Sanborn also wrote and lectured. His friendships with many of those connected with the transcendentalist movement resulted in a series of biographies that included those of Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, Hawthorne, Emerson and others. In 1879 he helped to establish the Concord School of Philosophy. Sanborn was married twice: to Ariana Walker in 1854 for just eight days until her death; to his cousin Louisa Augusta Leavitt in 1862 with whom he had three sons. He died in 1917 at his son's home in Plainfield, New Jersey at the age of eighty-five. The burial service was held at the First Parish Church in Concord, Massachusetts.

Franklin Benjamin Sanborn was born in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire on 15 December 1831. He was the son of Aaron Sanborn, a farmer and town clerk, and Lydia (Leavitt) Sanborn. He entered Phillips Exeter Academy in 1851 and enrolled at Harvard College as a sophomore in 1852. Sanborn graduated from Harvard in 1855, seventh in his class. While a student there he began a friendship with Ralph Waldo Emerson, having read Emerson's works extensively. As a result of this relationship, Emerson engaged Sanborn to begin a small private school in Concord that was attended by Emerson's children, as well as those of Hawthorne, Henry James, Horace Mann, and John Brown. Touring the west during the summer of 1856 to report on the progress of Free-Soil agitation, Sanborn became acquainted with John Brown. He subsequently brought Brown back to Concord in 1857 and raised money for him. He also knew of Brown's planned attack on Harpers Ferry and as a result was asked to testify before a Senate committee during the Brown trial. When he refused, he was arrested and an attempt made to seize him. Sanborn's captors were presented with a writ of habeas corpus prepared by Judge Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar and chased out of town. The court ordered Sanborn discharged the following day. Sanborn closed his school in 1862 and became the editor of The Boston Commonwealth. In 1863 he was appointed secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Charities and over the next two decades was responsible for the passage of charity and penal legislation in Massachusetts and other states. Between 1865 and 1874 Sanborn helped to found the American Social Science Association, the Clarke School for the Deaf, the Massachusetts Infant Asylum, the National Prison Association, and the National Conference of Charities and Correction. In 1879 he was appointed General Inspector of Charities and held that position until 1888. Sanborn also wrote and lectured. His friendships with many of those connected with the transcendentalist movement resulted in a series of biographies that included those of Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, Hawthorne, Emerson and others. In 1879 he helped to establish the Concord School of Philosophy.

Franklin Benjamin Sanborn was an American teacher, author, editor, and activist. He helped pioneer Alcott's new teaching methods, and taught the first course in social sciences at Cornell. Although his scholarship was shoddy and transcriptions imprecise, his biographies helped popularize such authors as Henry David Thoreau, on the strength of his first-hand knowledge. He was one of John Brown's "Secret Six" and knew about the Harper's Ferry raid; he fled to Canada, but was later cleared by Congress and returned to Massachusetts.

Franklin B. Sanborn, prominent journalist and author, wrote several biographies, including that of John Brown, who led the raid on the Union arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va., Oct. 16, 1859.

Franklin Benjamin Sanborn (1831-1917), author, journalist, and philanthropist, graduated from Harvard in 1855 and opened a school in Concord, Mass. An active abolitionist, Sanborn was secretary of the Massachusetts Free Soil Association and a supporter of John Brown (1800-1859). He was also an editor of Boston Commonwealth and the Springfield Republican, the first secretary of the State Board of Charities, founder of many philanthropic societies, and biographer of Concord's leading literary figures.

American author and philanthropist.