48 proceedinOs of the Pittsburgh mEetiKG 



memoir of franklin r. garpenter^f 



BY H. O. HOFMAN 



Franklin R. Carpenter was bom November 5, 1848, in Parkersburg, 

 West Virginia. When he was less than 4 years old his father died, 

 leaving a widow and three children, of whom Franklin was the eldest. 

 As the widow did not have abundant means, she went about 1853 from 

 Parkersburg to Clarksburg, in Harrison County, to teach in the Broaddus 

 Seminary. Later she became postmistress, her eldest son, at the age of 

 7 or 8, handling the mail bags. During the Civil War the now 12-year 

 old boy was frequently sent through the lines at Clarksburg with 

 dispatches sewed up in his clothes. In his 14th year he became a "boy" 

 in a Parkersburg hardware store; in his 16th year he was apprenticed to 

 a jeweler and watchmaker. Although skillful at his trade, he was not 

 content to surrender his ambition for a higher education. He read every- 

 thing that came within his reach. Returning to Clarksburg in 1864, he 

 successfully passed the examination for a teacher's certificate and alter- 

 nated between school teaching and farm work. In 1865 he studied Latin, 

 mathematics, and natural philosophy, and read much under the guidance 

 of the kindly village physician. Doctor Late, so that he was able to earn a 

 teacher's certificate of the highest grade and to command a better salary. 



The survey of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in that section formed 

 the turning point in his career by arousing his desire to become a civil 

 engineer. With the money saved while teaching he entered, in 1866, a 

 small denominational school at Pruntytown, West Virginia, called Rec- 

 tor's College, and took the course in civil engineering. His proficiency in 

 mathematics won him the friendship of his teachers. He was graduated 

 in 1868, and had his first engineering experience as rodman with a rail- 

 road surveying party at Chillicothe, Ohio. He was quickly advanced to 

 transit man, and after six weeks became chief of the party, but being 

 attacked by malarial fever he returned, in 1869, to West Virginia and 

 became assistant geologist in the State engineer corps. His early experi- 

 ence in laying out railroads doubtless developed the characteristic topo- 

 graphical instinct in geological field work, which enabled him to locate 

 quickly the critical points for observation. 



In 1872 he invested his savings in his first financial enterprise by bond- 

 ing timber and coal lands in West Virginia, but, like most first ventures, 

 this one came to naught and he was obliged to betake himself to school 



•/ Condensed by the Secretary, from the Bulletin of the American Institute of Mining 

 Engineers, No. 44, August, 1910. 



