The Biographical Dictionary of America/Backus, Franklin Thomas

BACKUS, Franklin Thomas, lawyer, was born at Lee, Mass., May 6, 1813. He spent his boyhood ta working on a farm to support his widowed mother, and at the age of thirteen went to Cleveland. Ohio. He obtained employment in a lawyer's office, gained an elementary education and earned his way through Yale college. After his graduation in 1836 he studied law in Cleveland for three years, and was admitted to the bar. In 1841 he was prosecuting attorney for Cuyahoga county, and was elected state representative in 1846, and state senator in 1848. In 1861 he was a delegate to the peace conference at Washington. He died May 14, 1870.