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History · Franklin

Franklin’s post office opened in 1833, and 32% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1914 on and the census since 1880.

1833first post office

0on the National Register

32%homes built before 1940

2famous people

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Quick answers

How Franklin began

When was Franklin founded?

1833

The Franklin post office opened in 1833, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 316 in 18802020 census: 610193 years

Founding year: the first Franklin post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Franklin’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Franklin are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Deep rootsA post office since 1833: 193 years of Franklin.Old housesHalf of Franklin’s homes were built before 1962.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Franklin’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Franklin’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

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Timeline

Franklin, 1833 to 1932

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

19th century
1833Post officeThe Franklin post office opens
1850Born hereWilliam H. Hinrichsen is born here
1893Born hereYank Tandy is born here
20th century
1932On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey

The story so far

Franklin, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Franklin yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Franklin is a village in Morgan County, Illinois, United States. The population was 610 at the 2020 census, unchanged from 2010. It is part of the Jacksonville Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Its first post office opened in 1833. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 610 in 2010, 610 in 2020.

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Franklin, 1887–1918

Passages that mention Franklin, cut from the printed page as they were published.

**Franklin County history**1918 · page 38Read the page →
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The railroad land of Franklin was donated to Illinois for the building of railroads. The Illinois legislature passed a law incorporating the Illinois Central Railroad Company and granting the railroad land to it.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

contest, however, was settled, and the further orders given by way of an act of the General Assembly of the State, approved January 7, 1841, declaring "That from and after the first day of March, 1841, the seat of justice in and for the county of Franklin, shall be deemed, and held to be at the tow… — **History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson counties, Illinois, from the earliest time to the present**1887 · page 363Read the page →
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contest, however, was settled, and the further orders given by way of an act of the General Assembly of the State, approved January 7, 1841, declaring "That from and after the first day of March, 1841, the seat of justice in and for the county of Franklin, shall be deemed, and held to be at the town of Benton." Accordingly the removal was made, and the first term of the county commissioners' court held in the town of Benton was in March, 1841, when there were present Abraham Rea, Benj. W. Pope and
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The territory now embraced in the county of Williamson, belonged to the county of Franklin, and composed the south half thereof from its organization until the year 1839, when it was cut off from that county and created into a new county in accordance with an act of the General Assembly of the Stat… — **History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson counties, Illinois, from the earliest time to the present**1887 · page 448Read the page →
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The territory now embraced in the county of Williamson, belonged to the county of Franklin, and composed the south half thereof from its organization until the year 1839, when it was cut off from that county and created into a new county in accordance with an act of the General Assembly of the State, entitled "An Act to establish the county of Williamson" approved Februarys 28, 1839. The provisions of this act, providing for the division of Franklin County, and the establishing of Williamson County,
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**Franklin County history**1918 · page 29Read the page →
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Franklin County is indebted to her early settlers for the gentle, Christian spirit that had been a great factor in moulding the character of the founders of Franklin County.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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On the map

Franklin on the map, 1932 to 1983

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Franklin. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

1932Jacksonville sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Franklin.

Every building

Franklin, building by building, 1914

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.

Franklin fire insurance map, 1914, sheet 2

1914Sheet 2 of 2

Sheets

+1 more at the Library of Congress

BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

People over time

Franklin, census by census

Between 316 and 696 people in every census since 1880.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Franklin’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

2 famous people were born in Franklin

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →

William H. HinrichsenAmerican politician · b. 1850

Yank TandyAmerican football player · b. 1893

Questions about Franklin’s history

What year was Franklin founded?

The Franklin post office opened in 1833, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →

Start a conversation

Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

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