Franklin Idaho Pioneer Association

                                                                                                               In 1879, Idaho was still an untamed wilderness known only to trappers and explorers.  So the early history of Franklin is very interesting.  We know that after the settlement in the Salt Lake Valley, President Brigham Young was always sending people to settle other regions and begin new communities.  In the summer of 1859 he advised a group of people to make the move with their families to northern Cache Valley.  He told them that no other territory was equal to this with grass, timber, and water that would make a good place to settle.  The praises and possibilities were pleasing to them. And in the spring of 1860, a band of five companies left their homes.  It was early April and they loaded their wagons with family, household goods, and implements, and started northward.  Some of them made camp near Blacksmith Fork and left their families, then the men walked further on to find a suitable place.  It was April 14 when these 13 men crossed the river and explored.  They found it was good, and returned to report to the others.  The next day many more came with their wagons and families, and soon 23 families had arrived.  By the end of the summer there were about 60 families in the new settlement.  Just 5 days after the first men came which was the 19th, a meeting was called and they balloted for lots in the center place and also for ten acre tracts of land.  Every man had a cane lot east of the center of town to grow sugar cane an  broom corn, and the 10 acre lots were for  hay lands south of town which was known as South Field.   All the younger men were given the duty of minute men groups to take turns guarding the settlers.  They stood guard on Little Mountain which they called Mt.  Lookout and it was their responsibility to warn the settlers of the approach of Indians or any suspicious activities.

 

The first homes were their wagon boxes placed on the ground close together.  The running gear was used to haul logs form the canyon.  Their cooking was done over a camp fire that summer.  As soon as they could, they built rude cabins or dugouts with adobe and willows and maybe a few timbers.  They followed the advice of Brigham Young and built in the formation of a fort with the cabins facing center.  They also dug irrigation ditches to bring water to their crops.  Snow came as late as May 12 that year and early that month the settlement was named Franklin when Peter Maughan and Apostle Ezra Taft Benson came to visit.  It was decided to name the town Franklin after Apostle Franklin D. Richards.  They also dug a well in the center of the square which was a community well.  By that fall, a school was being held in one of the cabins and in the fall of 1861 a small building was finished which served for both the school and church meetings.
Until 1872 Franklin was geographically and officially a part of Utah. Then through a survey it was decided that the Utah line was defined as being a mile to the south.  With this turn of events, Franklin had the distinction of becoming the first permanent settlement of Idaho.  In 1910, 50 years after the settlement, Governor James Brady made a proclamation to the State of Idaho that the citizens of Franklin would celebrate the 14 and 15 of June to commemorate their settlement, and that Idaho Day would be observed by the citizens of the state.  He told of the hardships and struggles they had faced when they came, and called attention to the fact that we remember the “sacrifices they mad in order that the generations of the future might enjoy the fruits of their labors.”  The in 1958, governor Robert E. Smylie changed the day to the last Saturday in June which has continued to the present.  The last proclamation was by Governor Cecil Andrus in recognition of the 1990 Idaho Centennial.  That year it was celebrated June 26 to 30 and the activities and festivities made it a week to remember.
Idaho Day is the day we celebrate our beginnings with many of Idaho firsts: first school and church, first irrigation, lumber mill, flour, grist, and woolen mills, first store, railroad and telegraph and many other things, we have a rich heritage which was bestowed by those of our ancestors who came so long ago.