In 1827 Elijah Bullock, one of the founders of the Stoughton Bullock Settlement, later renamed Franklin in 1828, set aside land for a burial ground. This parcel, known as the Old Plat, lies in the southeast corner of the cemetery. The cemetery contains the remains of some of Franklin's earliest settlers, including four of the fifteen original landowners: Melvin Drake, Hiram Pike, William Stoughton, and Jonathan Worthing. Franklin Cemetery began as a one-acre burial ground in 1827, and the first of six expansions came in 1848 when Benjamin and Charlotte Worthing donated an acre of farmland next to the original cemetery. The Franklin Cemetery Society organized in 1852 to manage and maintain the burial ground. The cemetery also displays typical nineteenth-century grave markers, including urns, obelisks, tree trunks, weeping willows, and benches.