FRANKLIN, John, pioneer, born in Canaan, Connecticut, 26 September 1749; died in Athens, Pennsylvania, 1 March 1831. He removed to the Wyoming valley in 1775, settled in Huntington, and was an active participant in the settlement of that region. During the Revolution he was a captain in the 24th regiment of Connecticut militia, was with his company in the Sullivan campaign, and was severely wounded in the shoulder at the battle or skirmish at Chemung. He was a justice of the peace, colonel of militia, and several times member of assembly, He was an active, energetic, and resolute man, with talents of a high order, much beloved and confidence in by the people, he and Colonel Jenkins stood side by side in their resistance to the encroachments of the "Pennimites" upon their rights and possessions, and for thirty years sustained the rights of the settlers against the proprietors and the state who were led by Alexander Patterson, General John Armstrong, and Colonel Timothy Pickering. Pickering kidnapped Franklin with a band of frontier roughs, 2 October 1787, taken to Philadelphia, imprisoned, loaded with irons, and detained fourteen months without trial.