FRANKLIN WELLES CALKINS, one of America's foremost adventure and folklore writers was born 05 June 1858 in Arena, Iowa Co. Wisconsin to John Franklin Calkins and Abigail Wells Calkins. At the close of the Civil War his parents, Wells grandparents, and Wells and Calkins aunts and uncles relocated to northwest Iowa. There his father, John Calkins and a Mr. Hale laid out the town site of the present city of Spencer, Clay County, Iowa. Franklin was eight years of age at the time and made the city home until he was age 30. While in school there he began his work of adventure stories, later filling in as schoolmaster. As a youth he explored the Black Hills county of the Dakotas and learned much of the Indians, speaking several Indian tongues fluently. He was also versed in lore of the mountains of the west, the desert, animals and bird life, and his work abounds with knowledge gained in this field. He has been a lawyer, railroad contractor, school teacher, broker, rancher, hunter and traveler. For over forty years he was a writer of Indian and frontier stories for Golden Days, Youth's Companion and other magazines and papers; several books of adventure among them "My Host the Enemy", "Two Wilderness Voyagers" and "The Wooing of Tokala". These last two were such accurate descriptions of Indian life that several colleges used them as helps in Indian study. In writing them he was assisted by a full-blooded Indian girl, or Miss, who had been adopted by a Quaker brother and sister and educated in Carlisle College. She was a proficient violinist. He refers to her as "My little sister of the Dakotas". This is a true story as learned from the Indians. His first story was of his dog and was published by the Youth's Companion. Engaged to several he married none.
Ill health forced Franklin to give up his writing in 1917 and he went to Bear Lodge, Wyo and in 1920 went to Porterville, Calif. where his health benefited from a change of climate. In the meantime, Spencer, Iowa's friends, hearing nothing of him honored his memory by erecting a monument. When learning of this Franklin Calkins remarked, "It might be more ethical to pass on now but, I guess I'll go on as usual until I'm summoned." In the Spring of 1922 he resumed his writing sending his editors a group of four stories, which they declared had the same old "kick". He was also working on a novel. His mother, a woman of 87 years, was then making her home with him and shared with keen interest the affairs of his life.
Franklin Welles Calkins died 20 December 1928 in Elsinore, Riverside County, California. He is buried in the Elsinore Valley Cemetery.
(Wells/Calkins Family History~R.I.Miller)
BROTHER: Jerome Burton Calkins 1867-1937
Ill health forced Franklin to give up his writing in 1917 and he went to Bear Lodge, Wyo and in 1920 went to Porterville, Calif. where his health benefited from a change of climate. In the meantime, Spencer, Iowa's friends, hearing nothing of him honored his memory by erecting a monument. When learning of this Franklin Calkins remarked, "It might be more ethical to pass on now but, I guess I'll go on as usual until I'm summoned." In the Spring of 1922 he resumed his writing sending his editors a group of four stories, which they declared had the same old "kick". He was also working on a novel. His mother, a woman of 87 years, was then making her home with him and shared with keen interest the affairs of his life.
Franklin Welles Calkins died 20 December 1928 in Elsinore, Riverside County, California. He is buried in the Elsinore Valley Cemetery.
(Wells/Calkins Family History~R.I.Miller)
BROTHER: Jerome Burton Calkins 1867-1937
FRANKLIN WELLES CALKINS, one of America's foremost adventure and folklore writers was born 05 June 1858 in Arena, Iowa Co. Wisconsin to John Franklin Calkins and Abigail Wells Calkins. At the close of the Civil War his parents, Wells grandparents, and Wells and Calkins aunts and uncles relocated to northwest Iowa. There his father, John Calkins and a Mr. Hale laid out the town site of the present city of Spencer, Clay County, Iowa. Franklin was eight years of age at the time and made the city home until he was age 30. While in school there he began his work of adventure stories, later filling in as schoolmaster. As a youth he explored the Black Hills county of the Dakotas and learned much of the Indians, speaking several Indian tongues fluently. He was also versed in lore of the mountains of the west, the desert, animals and bird life, and his work abounds with knowledge gained in this field. He has been a lawyer, railroad contractor, school teacher, broker, rancher, hunter and traveler. For over forty years he was a writer of Indian and frontier stories for Golden Days, Youth's Companion and other magazines and papers; several books of adventure among them "My Host the Enemy", "Two Wilderness Voyagers" and "The Wooing of Tokala". These last two were such accurate descriptions of Indian life that several colleges used them as helps in Indian study. In writing them he was assisted by a full-blooded Indian girl, or Miss, who had been adopted by a Quaker brother and sister and educated in Carlisle College. She was a proficient violinist. He refers to her as "My little sister of the Dakotas". This is a true story as learned from the Indians. His first story was of his dog and was published by the Youth's Companion. Engaged to several he married none.
Ill health forced Franklin to give up his writing in 1917 and he went to Bear Lodge, Wyo and in 1920 went to Porterville, Calif. where his health benefited from a change of climate. In the meantime, Spencer, Iowa's friends, hearing nothing of him honored his memory by erecting a monument. When learning of this Franklin Calkins remarked, "It might be more ethical to pass on now but, I guess I'll go on as usual until I'm summoned." In the Spring of 1922 he resumed his writing sending his editors a group of four stories, which they declared had the same old "kick". He was also working on a novel. His mother, a woman of 87 years, was then making her home with him and shared with keen interest the affairs of his life.
Franklin Welles Calkins died 20 December 1928 in Elsinore, Riverside County, California. He is buried in the Elsinore Valley Cemetery.
(Wells/Calkins Family History~R.I.Miller)
BROTHER: Jerome Burton Calkins 1867-1937
Ill health forced Franklin to give up his writing in 1917 and he went to Bear Lodge, Wyo and in 1920 went to Porterville, Calif. where his health benefited from a change of climate. In the meantime, Spencer, Iowa's friends, hearing nothing of him honored his memory by erecting a monument. When learning of this Franklin Calkins remarked, "It might be more ethical to pass on now but, I guess I'll go on as usual until I'm summoned." In the Spring of 1922 he resumed his writing sending his editors a group of four stories, which they declared had the same old "kick". He was also working on a novel. His mother, a woman of 87 years, was then making her home with him and shared with keen interest the affairs of his life.
Franklin Welles Calkins died 20 December 1928 in Elsinore, Riverside County, California. He is buried in the Elsinore Valley Cemetery.
(Wells/Calkins Family History~R.I.Miller)
BROTHER: Jerome Burton Calkins 1867-1937
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