Editing Franklin, Ohio (section)

==History==
[[File:Franklin, Ohio - Flood of 1913.jpg|thumb|left|[[Great Flood of 1913]]]] 
{{Further|topic=the 1848|Eden Thirkfield Home}}
Franklin was founded by General [[William C. Schenck]], in 1796.<ref>{{cite web | last = Bogan | first = Dallas | title = Warren County Local History | publisher = Rootsweb | date = Jan 29, 1914 | url = http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohwarren/Bogan/bogan395.htm}}</ref> The settlement was named for [[Benjamin Franklin]]. Franklin was incorporated in 1814, and became a city in 1951. One of the first four post offices in Warren County was established in Franklin in 1805. The first postmaster was John N.C. Schenck, brother of General Schenck. The [[Franklin Post Office]] still stands (in a different location), and is one of four sites in Franklin listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Warren County, Ohio|National Register of Historic Places]], along with the [[Mackinaw Historic District]].

Construction of the [[Miami and Erie Canal]] occurred between 1825 and 1845. The canal followed the Great Miami River through Franklin, and the boat traffic led to new commerce. The town soon had a pork slaughterhouse, barrel making factory, sawmill, and whiskey distillery.<ref name="Gorsuch">{{cite book | last = Gorsuch | first = Geoffrey G. | title = Franklin | publisher = Arcadia | year = 2005 | isbn = 9780738534190 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=q1dKYLZKfVsC&pg=PP1}}</ref> Franklin's first mayor, Dr. Absalom Death, was elected at a tavern meeting in 1837. Dr. Death went on to be director of a medical college in [[Cincinnati]]. In its history, two doctors in Franklin have been named "Dr. Death".<ref name="Gorsuch"/>

By the 1850s, the Franklin area was noted for breeding racehorses. One chestnut-colored mare, ''Nightingale'', sired by ''[[Mambrino (horse)|Mambrino]]'' and ''Wood's Hambletonian'', set a 3-mile harness racing record of 6:55½ in 1893.<ref>{{cite web | title = An Old-Time Record Broken | work = New York Times | date = October 21, 1893 | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1893/10/21/109713288.pdf}}</ref> A railroad was completed with a depot in Franklin in 1872. The town continued to prosper, and by 1890, five paper mills were located in Franklin. The town's economy suffered a setback in 1896, when Franklin's only bank crashed. A longtime and trusted teller had embezzled vast amounts of money, affecting the fortunes of many individuals and businesses.<ref name="Gorsuch"/>

The town marshal of Franklin, George Basore, was shot and killed in 1906 while attempting to arrest an African American man, George White. When White was arrested, a crowd of 300 gathered outside the Franklin jail intent on lynching him. The sheriff and two deputies were able to remove White and take him to nearby [[Lebanon, Ohio|Lebanon]] for his safety. The ''New York Times'' reported: "The whole town of Franklin is wrought up over the affair. Colored people were chased out without being given time to explain".<ref>{{cite web | title = Negro Kills a Marshall | work = New York Times | date = October 31, 1906 | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/10/31/101804506.pdf}}</ref> White died the following year in the electric chair.<ref>{{cite web | last = Kramer | first = Stephen R. | title = Marshal George E. Basore | publisher = Greater Cincinnati Police Museum | date = June 7, 2013 | url = http://www.gcphs.com/LODD/Basore.html | access-date = August 27, 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130728130429/http://www.gcphs.com/LODD/Basore.html | archive-date = July 28, 2013 | url-status = dead | df = mdy-all }}</ref>

In 1907, Franklin's fire chief, B.H. Miller, walked into the police station and shot dead one of the prisoners who had allegedly had an affair with his wife a month earlier.<ref>{{cite web | title = Kills Rival in his Cell | work = New York Times | date = September 4, 1907 | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1907/09/05/104707935.pdf}}</ref> The town was devastated by the [[Great Flood of 1913|Great Flood]] of March 1913, when the Great Miami River overflowed its banks.

Franklin opened what was considered the world's first garbage-recycling plant in 1971.  Designed and built by the Black Clawson Company, the plant recycled metals from solid waste, and used recovered paper fibers to make roofing materials.<ref>''The Franklin Chronicle'', August 1971</ref>

In 1989, Ronald Peters, a café owner in Franklin, was alleged to be the principal bookmaker for baseball player [[Pete Rose]].<ref>{{cite web | title = Reports Say Rose Bet on Baseball | publisher = Beaver County Times | date = April 6, 1989 | url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=67kiAAAAIBAJ&dq=franklin-ohio&pg=3820%2C1065843}}</ref>

In 2015, The Museum of Spiritual Art opened.<ref>{{cite web | title = The Museum of Spiritual Art (MOSA) The Malhotra Collection | publisher = Museum of Spiritual Art | url = http://www.spiritualitycircle.com/museum.html | access-date = }}</ref> In 2017, Franklin attracted national attention in the week following the [[Unite the Right rally]] in [[Charlottesville, Virginia]], when the city removed an obscure Confederate marker honoring [[Robert E. Lee]] that had existed along the right-of-way of [[Dixie Highway]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/346908-ohio-city-to-remove-robert-e-lee-monument/ | title=Ohio city to remove Robert e. Lee monument | date=17 August 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.citybeat.com/news/news-feature/article/20973358/franklins-monument-to-robert-e-lee-removed | title=Franklin's monument to Robert e. Lee removed }}</ref>  The marker had been dedicated in 1927 by the [[United Daughters of the Confederacy]] in what was at that time a part of [[Franklin Township, Warren County, Ohio|Franklin Township]].<ref>{{cite web
|title=Ohio's Strange Monument Honoring Robert E. Lee
|first1=Steven
|last1=Rosen
|date=August 11, 2015
|url=http://www.citybeat.com/arts-culture/big-picture/article/13001963/ohios-strange-monument-honoring-robert-e-lee
|quote=It is a large, ruggedly shaped boulder with a bronze plaque in the center, fenced off from the roadway by some petite white pillars and a draped metal chain. The plaque depicts Lee astride his horse, Traveller, and reads, "Erected and Dedicated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and Friends In Loving Memory of Robert E. Lee and to Mark the Route of the Dixie Highway. ‘The shaft memorial and highway straight attest his worth — he cometh to his own.’ — Littlefield/Erected 1927." ... Cindy Branam, president of the Ohio division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, said she had never heard of the monument until a recent call from a blogger. Her research shows it appears to be one of three markers her group had installed in Ohio — the others acknowledge actual historic sites, Confederate cemeteries at Johnson’s Island and Columbus. 
}}</ref>