Its Register listings are the Merrillsville Cure Cottage and the Loon Lake Mountain Fire Observation Station. Below: maps from 1906 on and the census since 1840.
Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1837.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Franklin’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Franklin is more historic than 87% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Franklin’s overall grade.
New York towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New York town has 12.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Franklin’s 24.0 sits near the middle of its state (59% of New York towns have fewer) while its 3 historic buildings outnumber those of 65% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from A− to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.3 points). Two sources give 1827.
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Franklin’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first settlement in the town was Franklin Falls (1827). This community burned in 1852.
The town of Franklin was founded in 1836 from part of the town of Bellmont. The town was used to relocate former slaves, in part the work of Gerrit Smith, an abolitionist, and in part the result of Civil War veterans inviting freed slaves to return home with them.
The Loon Lake Mountain Fire Observation Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
Passages that mention Franklin, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Franklin and Cerro Gordo counties, Iowa ... and biographies of representative citizens. History of Iowa, embracing accounts of the pre-historic races ..1883 · page 510Read the page →
Read the text
This old town, however, in 1875, had one of the finest school houses in Franklin county. Reeve township was one of the three original townships of the county, being organized in 1855. In 1880, Franklin county being sub-divided into congressional townships, Reeve comprised township 91, range 20, and was bounded
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A history of electricity (The intellectual rise in electricity) from antiquity to the days of Benjamin Franklin, by Park Benjamin1898Read the page →
Read the text
'I have followed the autobiography of Franklin as edited by the Hon. John Bigelow, in his fine edition of Franklin's Works, N Y., 1889. Parton's Life and Times of Franklin, New York, 1864, has a chapter (vol.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Franklin and Cerro Gordo counties, Iowa ... and biographies of representative citizens. History of Iowa, embracing accounts of the pre-historic races ..1883 · page 446Read the page →
Read the text
of Iowa since about 1855, when he came to Scott county, and located about twelve miles from Davenport, which was his home until he came to Franklin county, in 1876. He bought a farm in the township of West Fork, which he has rented since the fall of 1882, when he took up his residence at Hansell station. Mr. Hamilton
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.
Timeline
Franklin, 1827 to 1917
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In 1827, according to Wikidata. Franklin’s post office opened in 1837, and the census of 1840 counted 192 people here.
How does Franklin rank for history?
Franklin is more historic than 87% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Franklin?
Two places: the Merrillsville Cure Cottage (listed 1995) and the Loon Lake Mountain Fire Observation Station (2008).
How old are the homes in Franklin?
32% of Franklin’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.3 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1974.
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).
From the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, 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 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.
