He was a 19th-century industrialist, active in his family's iron business which was a branch of the Stirling Iron Works, the maker of the Hudson River Chain that prevented the British Royal Navy from sailing up the Hudson River during the American Revolutionary War.

Townsend's maternal grandfather was Solomon Townsend, a midshipman in the Colonial United States Navy, merchant ship captain, and active in the iron business in New York State through the Augusta Forge which he established in Tuxedo, New York.

His great uncle, Peter Townsend, established and ran the Stirling Iron Works which forged the Hudson River Chain which was strung across the Hudson River just south of the important American base at West Point, New York.

[1] When civil war broke out in the United States, Townsend became involved in raising the One Hundred and Thirteenth Regiment which in December 1862 was converted to the Seventh Heavy Artillery.

Franklin Townsend died at his home at 4 Elk Street, Albany NY on September 11, 1898.