Ben Franklin wrote essays for his brother’s newspaper as a widow named “Silence Dogood.”

Ben Franklin in his brother’s print shop

Among all the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin had the most interesting extracurricular activities. Before he studied electricity or invented bifocals, America’s first postmaster general had a habit of writing essays for his brother’s Boston newspaper under the pseudonym “Silence Dogood.” The 16-year-old posed as a widow because the writing he submitted under his own name was rejected by the New-England Courant, which his older brother James published. Silence had much to say about a variety of subjects, with her commentary touching on such subjects as religion and politics, and she was an instant hit with the weekly paper’s readers — she even received marriage proposals.

Fourteen of these essays were published beginning in 1722, but all good things must come to an end. After slipping Silence’s correspondence under the Courant’s door for several months, Franklin eventually revealed his true identity. His brother was none too pleased with this deception, having warned the younger Franklin against growing too vain in the wake of the essays’ warm reception, and the fallout played a part in Franklin’s departure for Philadelphia — the city where he lived for the rest of his life.

By the Numbers

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Ben Franklin’s son was a Loyalist.

Not every Franklin was a revolutionary. Among the many families divided by the colonies’ quest for freedom was that of the nation’s most eclectic founding father, as Benjamin Franklin’s only son, William, was a Loyalist who sided with England during the American Revolution. Born in 1730, William was with his father during Franklin’s famous kite experiment and later served as royal governor of New Jersey after George III became king of England. William’s gubernatorial tenure led to the father and son being apart from one another for more than a decade, which was enough time for them to land on opposite sides of the Revolution when it began in 1775. Franklin’s efforts to have William join the cause resulted in not only failure but estrangement. William was jailed during the Revolutionary War for acting as an informant and was released in 1778. Four years later, he left the country for England and lived there in exile for the remainder of his life.