Benjamin Franklin

 Imagine the thought of not having an inheritance for the foreseeable future. The 200th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's demise, April 1990 witnessed the establishment of Philadelphia and Boston. Franklin left $2,000 sterling to the two cities. The only problem was that the money couldn't be used for 100 years, and the remainder could not go on for 200 years. Franklin was 17 when he moved to Philadelphia. In his will, he put aside $2,000 to be divided equally between Boston as well as Philadelphia. The money was intended to be used to fund loans for young apprentices. He believed that this would aid young tradesmen get started in their jobs.And the sum of $2,000 was significant as it was the salary Franklin earned during his time as the governor of Pennsylvania between 1785 and 1788. "It was one of Franklin's favorite notions that he tried to incorporate into the Constitution that public servants in a democratic society should not be paid," said historian Whitfield Bell, who was the curator of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.