Editing Franklin County, New York (section)

==History==
This area was long occupied by Iroquoian-speaking peoples. In historic times, a group of primarily [[Mohawks]] established a village south of colonial Montreal across the St. Lawrence River; they had been trading with French colonists and many had converted to Catholicism. They were the easternmost nation of the [[Iroquois League]] of Five Nations, known in their language as the ''[[Haudenosaunee]]''.

After the English conquered the Dutch in the New York area, they established counties in 1683, in the eastern part of New York province and what is now Vermont. Both groups had settled primarily in Albany and along the Hudson River, a major waterway linking the upriver fur trade with the market of Manhattan. The first counties were very large in geographic area, taking in low-density populations. Gradually new counties were formed as colonial settlement increased, but most settlers stayed east of the middle of the Mohawk Valley, as the Iroquois nations controlled the lands beyond that. Historically the French, Dutch and English all traded with the Mohawk, the easternmost of these nations.

The area of the present Franklin County was part of [[Albany County, New York|Albany County]] when it was established in 1683. This was an enormous county, including the northern part of what became New York State as well as all of the present state of [[Vermont]] and, in theory, extending westward to the Pacific Ocean. This county was reduced in size on July 3, 1766, by the creation of [[Cumberland County, New York|Cumberland County]], and further on March 16, 1770, by the creation of [[Gloucester County, New York|Gloucester County]], both containing territory now in Vermont. On March 12, 1772, what was left of Albany County was split into three parts, one remaining under the name Albany County. [[Charlotte County, Province of New York|Charlotte County]] contained the eastern portion.

In 1784, the name "Charlotte County" was changed to [[Washington County, New York|Washington County]] to honor [[George Washington]], the [[American Revolutionary War]] general and later [[President of the United States of America]].
[[File:Franklin County Fairgrounds Malone.jpg|thumb|left|Franklin County Fairgrounds]]
In 1788, [[Clinton County, New York|Clinton County]] was split off from Washington County. It comprised a much larger area than the present Clinton County, including several other counties or county parts of the present New York State.

Following the American Revolutionary War, the United States forced the Six Nations of the ''[[Haudenosaunee]]'', or Iroquois Confederacy, to cede most of their lands in New York and Pennsylvania, as most had been allies of Great Britain, which had lost to the new United States. After the war, New York State sold off 5 million acres of former Iroquois territory at very low prices, seeking to attract settlers to develop farms and businesses. Land speculators quickly took advantage of the sales. Franklin County was part of the huge speculative [[Macomb's Purchase]] of 1791.

In 1799, Clinton County was reduced in size by the splitting off of [[Essex County, New York|Essex County]]. In 1802, Clinton County was reduced in size by a part of Clinton and two other counties being taken to form the new [[Saint Lawrence County, New York|St. Lawrence County]].

===Franklin County organized===
In 1808, Franklin County was split off from Clinton County and organized.<ref>A Gazetteer of New York State, Horace Spafford, first edition 1814, p. 78</ref> It was named after United States [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Founding Father]] [[Benjamin Franklin]]. In the early decades many landowners basically were subsistence farmers.

In the late 1880s and 1890s, both the [[Delaware and Hudson]] and [[New York Central]] railroads were constructed into the Town of Franklin. The Chateaugay branch of the Delaware and Hudson served the hamlet of Onchiota, which developed for the lumber industry. For more than 12 years, a major tract north of [[Saranac Lake, New York|Saranac Lake]] was harvested and millions of feet of timber were shipped out from here.<ref name="platts17">[https://localwiki.org/hsl/Onchiota "MUSHROOM TOWN TO BE DESERTED"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121071313/https://localwiki.org/hsl/Onchiota |date=January 21, 2018 }}, ''Plattsburgh Sentinel'', April 24, 1917. Accessed January 20, 2018.</ref>

The railroads carried the timber and products to market, and the industry flourished into the early 20th century until much of the timber was harvested. Several lumber mills operated in this area for decades,<ref name="brown">[https://localwiki.org/hsl/Onchiota "Historic Saranac Lake: Onchiota; Nathan Brown, "The first Franklinites"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121071313/https://localwiki.org/hsl/Onchiota |date=January 21, 2018 }}, ''Adirondack Daily Enterprise'', January 17, 2009. Accessed January 20, 2018.</ref> including Kinsley Lumber Company,<ref name="platts99">[https://localwiki.org/hsl/Onchiota "A $10,000 FIRE / KINSLEY LUMBER CO'S SAWMILL AT ONCHIOTA DESTROYED"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121071313/https://localwiki.org/hsl/Onchiota |date=January 21, 2018 }} ''Plattsburgh Daily Press'', April 17, 1899. Accessed January 20, 2018.</ref> Baker Brothers Lumber Company,<ref name="platts04">[https://localwiki.org/hsl/Onchiota "Baker Brothers' Lumber Company's Mill at Onchiota Destroyed"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121071313/https://localwiki.org/hsl/Onchiota |date=January 21, 2018 }}, ''Plattsburgh Sentinel and Clinton County Farmer'', August 12, 1904. Accessed January 20, 2018.</ref> and one owned by the Dock and Coal Company. The latter mill was dismantled in 1917 and shipped to Florida to be used in the lumber industry there.<ref name="platts17"/> The population declined as the lumber industry pulled out of the area.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

The railroads contributed to the Town of Franklin becoming a destination for summer travelers. In the late 1800s, Franklin County was home to three of the largest resort hotels in the [[Adirondacks]]: [[Paul Smith's Hotel]], Loon Lake House, and the [[Rainbow Inn]]. Due to the construction of highways and restructuring in the railroad industry, passenger service was ended to this remote area in the mid-20th century.<ref name="brown"/>

The history of Franklin County is preserved at the Franklin Historical and Museum Society in [[Malone, New York]].<ref>[http://reynoldstonnewyork.org/ Oral history of Franklin County in the late 19th-early 20th Centuries] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120404042334/http://www.reynoldstonnewyork.org/ |date=April 4, 2012 }}, Reynolds Stone New York website; includes transcriptions.</ref>

Ray Fadden ([[Mohawk people|Mohawk]]), with his wife, Christine, and son, John, was the founder and curator of the Six Nations Indian Museum located in Onchiota, a census-designated place in the Town of Franklin.<ref>[https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/native-news/through-our-eyes-a-mohawk-remembers-the-world-trade-center-job-site/ Ray Cook, "Through Our Eyes: A Mohawk Remembers the World Trade Center Job Site"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180122071736/https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/native-news/through-our-eyes-a-mohawk-remembers-the-world-trade-center-job-site/ |date=January 22, 2018 }}, ''Indian Country Today Media Network'', September 11, 2017. Accessed January 20, 2018.</ref> He built the structure from logs he had milled himself. The family-owned museum features more than 3,000 artifacts primarily from the Iroquoian nations, and interprets their culture.<ref name="sixnat">{{cite web|url=http://www.sixnationsindianmuseum.com/|title=The Six Nations Indian Museum: Mohawk Oneida Onondaga Cayuga Seneca & Tuscarora Indians. Artifacts emphasis on the culture of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy|website=sixnationsindianmuseum.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180108001625/http://www.sixnationsindianmuseum.com/|archive-date=January 8, 2018}}</ref> They were a prominent confederacy in New York of Six Nations by 1722, and they controlled much of the state west of colonial settlements in Albany and Schenectady.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}