Michael Thomas Leibrandt: Fathers and sons

It was April 21, 1790, when nearly 28,000 people marched down the streets of Philadelphia. This wasn’t a riot. It wasn’t a military exercise. And it wasn’t a celebration of America’s freedom. This was a chance for people from all over the world to pay tribute to a man whose greatness wouldn’t just be immortalized after his death. It was recognized during his life. William Penn may have founded Philadelphia, but Dr. Benjamin Franklin was its father.

I’ve been lucky in life. I didn’t just grow up with a love for life, I grew up with a love for Philadelphia. For me, it wasn’t just some teenage epiphany. It was instilled in me from the day that I was born (OK, maybe it began on my second day of life.) Win or lose, I spent Sunday afternoons watching the Eagles, August nights watching the Phillies, and toured some of Philadelphia’s best historic sites — all while covering all of the major food groups with a cheesesteak and a soft pretzel as a daily meal.

My grandfather spent almost all of his life in Philadelphia. He loved Athletics baseball, Penn football, and Philadelphia architecture. My father was educated at some of Philadelphia’s finest schools. He grew up in West Philadelphia,  loving Eagles football, Phillies baseball, a great cheesesteak, and a quality seafood lunch at the Samson Street Oyster House. In addition to the great aspects of Philadelphia that they passed along to me, I never saw either one of them without a book in their hands.

Ironically, it was not William Penn’s son who would carry on his legacy after Philadelphia’s founder passed away in July 1718. In a bitter legal battle between him and Penn’s second wife, Hannah Callowhill Penn, who not only lived a grand life in Pennsbury Manor on the Delaware River  but is considered by some to have been Pennsylvania’s only female executive. In a bitter legal battle, William Penn Jr. would challenge his father’s will but died before the case could be settled legally.

Benjamin Franklin’s son William was one of those 28,000 people at his father’s funeral. After years of bickering between William and his father — who found themselves on opposite sides of the American Revolution — tensions were strained. It was actually Franklin’s grandson — as depicted in the Apple TV Series Franklin — who would help to carry on his grandfather’s legacy by publishing his works after his death.  

That funeral in 1790 wasn’t the first in Philadelphia of its kind. What it was, however, was an incredible celebration of a man who just didn’t put all of his love and dedication into the city that he adored — a city he had arrived in five years after the death of William Penn. Franklin’s funeral was the celebration of a man who fathered our independence. Estimates of those who came to pay their respects that day were around 20,000 people — just 8,000 shy of Philadelphia’s estimated population at the time.

And would I compare my Philadelphia family lineage to that of the Penns and Franklins? Certainly not. When my father embarked on the difficult task of cleaning out grandpop’s house almost four decades ago after his death — that book still on top of the nightstand was my Dad’s. When I did the same for my father — that article on top of the table by his bedside? That article was one that I had written. 

Consider that for a mini-series, Apple TV.

Michael Thomas Leibrandt lives and works in Abington Township, Pennsylvania.