Talk:Franklin, Pennsylvania
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[edit] Great information but uncited
An anonymous user left this information on the talk page rather than the article for some reason. It's great stuff, but it needs to be cited. Please help find sources:
Franklin has seen the building of forts by each of the three powers in the region.
The city is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River and French Creek. Trader John Fraser set up shop there to do trade with the local native Americans. He was chased out by the French, who built Fort Machault to help solidify their hold on the region. Celeron had buried a plate here on his trip from Chautauqua south, claiming the entire Mississippi watershed for France.
Virginia governor Dinwiddie commissioned a trip north by young surveyor George Washington to scope out the extent of the French claims. Washington stopped at Fort Machault and traveled north to Fort Le Boeuf as well.
When the British started attacking the French line, Fort Machault was abandoned. The British built their own Fort Venango. Fort Venango was destroyed in Pontiac's War, and the area remained empty while the rest of the American Revolution played out.
In 1787, Captain Johnathan Hart was sent up from Pittsburgh to build an American fort to command the wilderness, and Fort Franklin was built. In 1790, George Power, who had helped build the fort, returned to build a home. When General Anthony Wayne conducted his campaign to root out the Native Americans in the region between 1793 and 1795, that set the stage for Franklin's settlement. In 1795 the town was laid out. Ten years later Venango County was established with Franklin as its seat.
Franklin remained a relatively quiet community until 1859, when oil was struck in nearby Titusville. Franklin also saw the drilling of many successful wells. James Evans was a local smithy who struck oil in his back yard. His daughter's call to her fiance ("Pa's struck ile!!") became the refrain of a popular song of the day. But the oil boom was never as rowdy in Franklin as in such notorious boomtowns as Pithole and Petroleum Center.
Franklin has its share of famous and infamous residents. General Jesse Reno was born here, and Samuel Crumbine, later the medical man of Dodge City and public health crusader in Kansas, spent his childhood here. John D. Rockefeller spent time here checking out the beginnings of his empire. The lawyer who would become Standard Oil's legal genius came from Franklin; S. C. T. Dodd created the legal structure of the "trust" for Standard Oil. And John Wilkes Booth lived in Franklin briefly while he tried to get rich in the oil business so that he could send Northern dollars to fund the Confederate cause.
Local men made small fortunes in oil. Franklin particularly remembers Joe Sibley, who became a US Senator, and Charles Miller, who built several of Franklin's finest buildings, including the Baptist church.
In later years, author Hildegarde Dolson grew up here, and recounted her childhood adventures in Franklin in "We Shook the Family Tree."
In the twentieth century, the oil industry left Northwest Pernnsylvania for Texas. The Eclipse Refinery was the largest oil refinery in the world in the early decades of the century, but by the forties it was gone, and today only a handful of buildings remain, used for offices and thrift stores.
Joe Joy Moved his underground mining machinery company here in the 1920's, and it has remained a major employer in the area to this day.
Today Franklin is a typical American small town. There are two beautiful parks in the heart of the city, one of which holds a beautiful fountain and the other of which contains one of the first Civil War monuments erected in the state and a bandstand, where the Franklin Silver Cornet Band (founded in 1856) still puts on concerts throughout the summer. A beautifully refurbished theater, the Barrow-Civic Theatre, houses the local theater company that presents shows year round.
DeBence Music World showcases one of the best collections of band organs and othjer mechaincal music makers in the world. The local Episcopalian church has the third largest collection of Tiffany glass in its stained glass windows.
The Allegheny River, now unbothered by industry, provides great fishing and canoing, and a large web of rails-to-trail bike paths run through the city. The city also hosts several festivals, most notable the Applefest (the first weekend in October).
--Chris Griswold 03:02, 23 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] X-Files
I watched the X-Files episode mentioned and it is NOT set in our Franklin
- The production staff came to Franklin to copy details such as police cars. Look at the episode's article. --Chris Griswold (☎☓) 22:03, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] School
I added a section about the school district with a link to the school district's article, any addition to the cities school info should be in the district's page, not the page for the city itself -- Gimpy530 01:10, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] County
Wondering how to edit this U.S. County Entry?
The WikiProject U.S. Counties standards might help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by ReadQT (talk • contribs) July 3, 2007
- This article is not about a county, and new talk page comments go at the bottom. --Chris Griswold (☎☓) 00:11, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
