By all accounts, Benjamin Franklin was an inventor, statesman, printer and generally a wily old cuss. But when dealing with Lancaster County farmers, he might have met his match.

An article in the April issue of the William and Mary Quarterly by professor Alan Houston of the University of California, San Diego, makes it clear that local farmers were obstinate negotiators when Franklin tried to hire their services during the French and Indian War. The episode revolves around an incident known to historians as the "wagon affair."

"Lancaster is ground zero for this story," Houston said during a telephone interview.

In his memoirs, written between 1771 and his death in 1790, Franklin was kind to local farmers.

"He wrote that all he had to do was put out the call and the farmers came running, glad to help," Houston said.

The real story came to light in 2007 while Houston, an expert on Franklin, was researching a new book, "Benjamin Franklin and the Politics of Improvement."

On his last day of working in the Manuscripts Reading Room of the British Library before flying home, he came across a work called "Copies of Letters relating to the March of General Braddock" by Thomas Birch, a contemporary of Franklin's.

Opening it, his eyes lit up as he discovered 47 of Franklin's letters, transcribed by Birch, written in the spring and summer of 1755.

"I knew almost instantly what I was looking at," Houston said. "Franklin refers to a book of letters concerning the 'wagon affair' in his autobiography, but no one has ever seen it. Like others, I assumed that it had not survived."

What the book reveals is contrary to Franklin's later writings.

It all began in Fayette County, when troops under then-Lt. Colonel George Washington were defeated at Fort Necessity by French troops and their Shawnee and Lenape Indian allies.

To the British, locked in an imperial struggle with France for years, Washington's surrender was disastrous, as it seemed to give the French control of America's western frontier. In response, the British sent Gen. Edward Braddock and about 2,000 men to take Fort Duquesne, at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in what is now downtown Pittsburgh.

Landing at Alexandria, Va., Braddock was promised 250 wagons, 2,500 horses and enough drivers to take his army the 250 miles to Fort Duquesne. What he found was just 20 wagons and 200 horses.

Colonial Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin, who was in the area, visited Braddock, who was furious at the delay. Franklin offered to get Pennsylvania farmers to help, and he and his son William traveled to Lancaster and York counties.

"On April 26, Franklin ran an ad in Lancaster," Houston said. "It explained the mission and its importance, and laid out the terms of payment and insurance on the wagons and animals in case of loss."

Rather than rally around the cause, as Franklin's later writings indicate, the farmers dickered for the highest possible price. They proved to be sharp businessmen.

"The letters give us a far more realistic picture," Houston said. "The farmers wanted the highest possible evaluation for their wagons and horses, and Franklin wanted to get the lowest evaluation."

The locals also figured the longer they held out, the higher the price they could command. Franklin grew frustrated, and the British became more desperate.

Franklin even resorted to threats, saying Sir John St. Clair, the ruthless British quartermaster, would come and simply take what he needed.

The threats did not work.

William Franklin told his father many of the farmers were drunk and angry, and he worried about "a drunken riot."

In the end, the farmers got the deal they wanted, and it was a smart move. Braddock's campaign came to grief; the general was killed, with many of the wagons lost and the horses slain or captured.

"The farmers proved to be pretty smart," Houston said. "The insurance loss was enormous."

Locally, there are not many documents pertaining to this event, said historian John W. W. Loose. He said Franklin was very unhappy with the local farmers.

"They just refused to cooperate," Loose said. "Franklin complained that they all wanted gold, and that many were either holding out for more money, or just holding out, period."

Loose said Franklin, in frustration, lamented how he'd like to "strip the pants off the Dutchmen."

Houston said the discovery of these long-lost letters makes the story "more believable."

"The letters are like having a worm's-eye view of what it was really like at the time, as opposed to remote recollections written by Franklin years later," Houston said. "Now we can see how difficult and complicated it was for the farmers and for Franklin."

Houston said finding the letters "totally made my day. More than one day, in fact."

"In my years of researching Franklin, this is the greatest discovery I've ever made," he said.

E-mail: lalexander@lnpnews.com