Franklin and New Franklin

Founded in 1816 on the north bank of the Missouri River about two miles southwest of present-day New Franklin, Franklin was named for Benjamin Franklin, served as the seat of Howard County, and by 1820 ranked second to St. Louis in Missouri Territory in population, with more than 225 buildings. The seat of the U.S. Land Office opened there in 1818, the first newspaper west of St. Louis, The Missouri Intelligencer, was printed there in 1819, the Boonslick Trail brought settlers to this westernmost settlement, and in 1821 William Becknell opened the Santa Fe Trail as a trade route from Franklin to the southwest. After other counties were formed from Howard County's original boundaries in 1823 and the county seat moved to Fayette in 1825, devastating Missouri River floods in 1826 and 1828 struck a town whose population had been estimated at 1,500 to 1,700, and in 1828 the town was relocated to higher ground and renamed New Franklin. Franklin was the early boyhood home of Kit Carson, four governors, two Supreme Court justices, Missouri's first senator, and artist George Caleb Bingham. New Franklin was laid out in 1828 by James Alcorn, a Revolutionary War soldier, after the original town washed into the river; the New Franklin Town Company purchased 240 acres for $1,500, sold lots for rebuilding, and many houses were moved there from Franklin. In 1893 the arrival of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad brought growth and economic success to New Franklin for the next ninety years, but after the MKT Railroad was bought by Union Pacific Railroad in 1986, service to the town was abandoned. To the immediate southwest of New Franklin city limits, Franklin Junction, later known as Franklin, grew rapidly in the early 1900s around the railroad's switching yards and depot, attracting hotels, restaurants, grocers, shops, banks, and new homes, and in 1912 the Howard County Court granted Franklin Junction a charter creating the present-day village.

New Franklin, Missouri · United States