1909 Franklin Parish History

Franklin Parish was established in 1843 out of parts of Catahoula, Ouachita and Madison parishes. It has an area of 616 square miles, is located in the northeastern part of the state, and is hounded as follows: On the north by Richland parish; on the east by Madison and Tensas parishes: the Boeuf river forms the south and part of its western boundary, separating Franklin from Catahoula and Caldwell parishes, and Richland parish completes the western boundary. One of the pioneers on Burnt Prairie was Neil Buie, who settled there as early as 1816, while Boeuf prairie was settled up by such families as the Lewises, Ballous, Graysons, Bowdens and Criswells. Lake Prairie was settled by a family named Doyle. After the organization of the parish, the first court was held at Boeuf prairie at an old camp. M. S. Osborn was the first parish judge; E. K. Williams, district judge; S. W. McClure, clerk, and J. W. Willis, sheriff. Winnsboro was made the seat of justice and the first court house was built there in 1847, which was used until a more modern structure was erected in 1855. The lands of Franklin parish are higher than those of the valley on the east; the formation is alluvial land along the river courses, wooded swamp and rolling prairie on the uplands, breaking into very rough bluff land. The soil is of various kinds; partly prairie, good for cotton and corn, fertile alluvial loam bottoms, and hill lands where the soil is not so good. Cotton is the chief export crop; the second crop is sugar-cane. Every farmer who has a patch of cane can make his own syrup. Corn is grown to some extent and the upland country has a soil and climate favorable to the growth of tobacco, some of the finest grades of cigar leaf and smoking tobacco being raised there. In both the valleys and the uplands there are a great number of truck crops which produce heavily in the favorable climate and long growing season. The garden varieties are almost unlimited, as conditions make it possible to grow in the open here the most tender plants. Truck farming has been encouraged with- in the last few years by the growing demand for the products from Memphis, New Orleans, Little Rock and other nearby cities, while many early vegetables are shipped to Chicago, Denver, St. Louis and Kansas City. The shipments amount to several car loads a day from some of the leading truck districts. There are several canning factories in the smaller towns that take care of the surplus. The rolling prairies and fertile bottoms give excellent pasturage, a long pasture season, an abundant water supply and good markets, which make stock raising and dairying profitable to the farmers of the parish. Since crop rotation has been introduced, hog raising has become a profitable side line to all the producers. The hills of the parish are well timbered by such varieties as oak, beech, pine, gum, elm, holly, hickory, magnolia, cottonwood, willow, mulberry, maple, ash and walnut. Franklin parish is watered by the Boeuf river and its tributary streams on the west, Bayou Macon on the east, and by Turkey. Big and Deer creeks and Turkey and Saline lakes. Like many of the Louisiana parishes, Franklin is not thickly populated. There are no cities, and Winnsboro, the parish seat, situated on the New Orleans & Northwestern R. R., is the largest and most important town. Other towns and villages are: Baskinton, Como, Crowville, Fort Necessity, Gilbert, Lamar, Liddieville, Hollygrove, Extension and Wisner. Transportation is furnished by the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern R. R., which enters the northern boundary near Bayou Macon and runs almost directly south to Gilbert, where it forms a junction with the New Orleans & Northwestern, which traverses the western part of the parish. The following statistics are taken from the U. S. census for 1900: number of farms, 1,455; acreage, 153,484; acres improved, 43,950; value of land and improvements exclusive of buildings, $784,660; value of farm buildings, $261,650; value of live stock, $364,781; value of all products not fed to live stock, $474,127; number of manufacturing establishments, 23; capital invested, $52.709; wages paid, $8,957: cost of materials used, $22,221; total value of products, $453,851. The population for the parish in 1900 was 3,870 whites, 5,020 colored, a total of 8,890, an increase of 1,990 during the preceding decade. The estimated .population for 1900 was over 9,000.

Extracted 13 Nov 2020 by Norma Hass, from Louisiana; comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, and persons, published in 1909, volume 1, pages 465-467.

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