Franklin R. Carpenter

Who was Franklin R. Carpenter?

Franklin Reuben Carpenter, was a notable mining specialist. He received his advanced academic education at Ohio University, earning the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. After graduation, he moved to the West, where he explored the geology and mining potential of the Black Hills and served as President, Dean of Faculty, and Professor of Geology at the Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City, South Dakota. He invented a new smelting process, authored a number of works on geology and papers on mining and smelting, and was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. A descendant of John Carpenter of Deptford, Gloucester County, New Jersey and of a Carpenter family with a tradition of ironworking, he married on December 23, 1874 in Arapahoe County, Colorado to Annette Howe; they were the parents of eleven children.