Franklin, Idaho's oldest town, was settled in 1860 by Mormon pioneers near the confluence of Worm Creek and Muddy River, and by year's end sixty-one Latter-day Saints families were there. They laid out a fort-style village, later built log cabins, and on April 19 met to allot farmable land near the village. Ten-acre lots outside the fort had been surveyed and were randomly awarded. The settlers planted oats, barley, and wheat, dug irrigation ditches, and in early June received a visit from Brigham Young, who named the village Franklin after Franklin D. Richards and renamed the Muddy River the Cub River because it flowed into the Bear River. Following the typical Mormon community pattern, they laid out wide streets, made lots large enough for a garden, barn, and outbuildings, and reserved space for a central town square that is today Franklin City Park. These pioneers believed they were still in Utah until an official boundary survey in 1872 established the Idaho-Utah border a mile south of Franklin. The settlement was established in response to Brigham Young's dream of a Mormon empire in the West, during a period when scores of families were sent out of Salt Lake City in all directions to establish communities and settle the country. In 1862, President Lincoln sent Captain Patrick Connor and his California Volunteers to the Salt Lake Valley to ensure a U.S. military presence in the region, both to make clear to Brigham Young that this was United States territory and would remain so and to protect Oregon-California Trail emigrants from Indian raids.