The Franklin Academy occupied this site from 1881 until 1922. It was one of six Congregational Church-affiliated academies in Nebraska. Others were located at Crete, York, Neligh, Weeping Water, and Chadron. Over 2,500 students in college preparatory studies attended the Franklin Academy. Distinguished alumni include author Adah Patterson, Federal Judge Robert Van Pelt, and Dr. Frank Cyr of Columbia University, under whose leadership the standard yellow school bus was developed. There were originally four buildings on the campus, now the Franklin city park: the main academy building; Stewart Hall, a boys' dormitory; Harrison Hall, a girls' dormitory named in honor of academy founder Reverend C. S. Harrison; and Dupee Music Hall, constructed in 1901. Financial problems and declining enrollment due to the increasing number of public high schools caused the academy's closing.
]]>Present Franklin County was formerly a part of the buffalo hunting range of the Pawnee Indians, whose villages were at one time located further down the valley of the Republican River. Cheyenne and Sioux hunting parties also frequented the area prior to 1869, when Genral Carr's Republican River Expedition cleared the valley of hostiles, opening the region to white settlement.
In September 1870, the Thompson Colony founded Riverton in the eastern part of the county, and the Republican Land and Claim Association or Knight Colony arrived on November 25th, to found the town of Franklin. In the Spring of 1871, a small Negro colony attempted to found a settlement, but their lack of finances forced its abandonment.
By proclamation of Governor Butler, the county was organized on March 3, 1871, with Franklin as the county seat. Nearby Bloomington, site of the U.S. Land Office for the region, won the county seat in 1874, where it remained until 1920. With the arrival of the railroad in 1879, this fertile country was soon settled by homesteaders, many of whose descendants still reside here. Founded during years of depression and natural disaster, Franklin County has a proud heritage.
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