County: Franklin County
Location of courthouse: E. Main St. & St. Charles St., Union
Location of county: Mid-State, eastern sector, one county W. of Mississippi;
Crossroads of I-44, US-50, MO-30, MO-100 & MO-47, MO-185
Organized: Dec. 11, 1818
Named after: Benjamin Franklin
County seat: Union
Elevation (highest): 1040 feet (317 meters)
Population: 103,967 (2019)
"Franklin County is a county in the eastern part of Missouri, bounded on the north by the Missouri River, which separates it from Warren and St. Charles Counties; on the east by St. Louis and Jefferson Counties; on the south by Washington and Crawford Counties, and on the west by Gasconade County...
"When the first settlers appeared there was a village of 200 or more tepees in the Bourbeuse Valley, but the Indians soon quietly disappeared. The first settlements were made along the Missouri Valley, under Spanish grants, and by Frenchmen, as would appear from the names of various streams whereon they located. The first American settler was probably Kincaid Caldwell, in 1803...James North came in 1818; he built the first water mill, and was drowned near it. The same year came Dr. Peter Kincaid, a Scotchman who had served under Napoleon; he platted the town of St. Albans which was swept away by the flood in 1844...
"The county of Franklin was organized December 11, 1818, and was named for Benjamin Franklin. As originally constituted it included the counties of Gasconade and Osage and portions of Maries and Miller Counties. Gasconade was detached and organized as a county in 1820, practically reducing Franklin to its present dimensions, although its boundaries were not accurately defined until 1845.
"Upon the organization of the county, David Edwards, Philip Boulware, Sr., William Laughlin, David B. Moore and William Harrison, as commissioners, established the county court at New Port, in St. John's Township, near the Missouri River, and erected a small court house. In 1825, on petition of a majority of the people, the General Assembly passed an act for the removal of the seat of justice to some point near the central part of the county, and making Barnabas Stickland, Moses Whitmore and Brackett Barnes to select a location. Union was agreed upon, and Nathan Richards having donated thirty-seven and one-half acres of land for public uses, a log court house was built, in 1828, at a cost of $844.97, and this was occupied until a brick building was erected in 1849...The first county court was held in January, 1821, at New Port...The last session at New Port was November 7, 1826, and the first at the new seat of Union was June 25, 1827...The first session of the circuit court, under Territorial laws was held by Judge Nathaniel Beverly Tucker, March 8, 1819.
"The first inhabitants of Franklin County were the Mound Builders...The Indians were the sucessors of the Mound Builders...
"Most of the Indians gradually left the area, but a remnant were left behind; they belonged to the once powerful tribes of Shawnees, Delawares and Osages, and had a village of 200 to 300 cabins in the vicinity of the Bourbeuse River, named Shawneetown.
"The inhabitants of Franklin County were at this time chiefly distributed in a few settlements along the Missouri River, mainly on "Spanish grants", tracts of land ceded by the Spanish governor of St. Louis. These settlements were known as the "Labaddie" settlement, the "Du Bois" settlement, the "St. John's" settlement, the "Newport" settlement, the "Boeuf" and the "Berger" settlements. A list of the Spanish grants may be found in the History of Franklin County." ~ State of Missouri, History of Franklin County, 1888, Goodspeed, pp. 214, 217, 287