Franklin County Records and Research Center

FCHS archivist Susan Geiss knows where the good stuff is kept.

The Franklin County, KS, Historical Society owns two beloved local treasures: the Old Depot Museum and the Dietrich Cabin. But there is a third resource that is at least as valuable to anyone who cares about local history: the Franklin County Records and Research Center.

Genealogists, especially, could find endless ways to explore the thousands of documents on hand. Did your grandfather attend a one-room schoolhouse in the 1920s? Would you care to know what grade he received in his third-grade math class? There's a good chance you could find out.

Field Trip to Greenwood and Pomona Townships

Louis Reed tells about Keokuk.

Huddled under a shelter with hands in pockets, braced against a chilly wind, several curious members of the Franklin County Rural History Club listened carefully. Fellow member Louis Reed was explaining what we would see during our first field trip of 2017, a Saturday excursion through west-central Franklin County. From our starting point here at Greenwood Baptist Church, we would meander through Greenwood and Pomona Townships, briefly crossing the line into neighboring Osage County for a look at Quenemo, a one-time boom town.

Franklin County Poor Farm: A Visitor's Perspective

Andre and Nicole Bonnin at the Poor Farm.
Photo by Peter Burns

This guest post was written by Andre Bonnin of Paris, France. Andre and his wife, Nicole, were visiting the Mettenburg family, of Princeton, Kansas, in October 2016 and were invited to join the Rural History Club's field trip to the Franklin County Poor Farm. Andre wrote the article in his native French; Nicole provided the English translation. Andre also took the photos, except for the one at left.

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Archeology, history, social topics: here are three good reasons to meet a club of Kansas citizens, fans of history, in the outbuildings of a Franklin County “Poor Farm” on a sunny morning.

More than one hundred years ago, some kind people of this county worried about precarious conditions of poor farmers. A social and human sensitive issue without solution. Back to their ideals and looking for the Pilgrim Fathers' history, they founded a community gathering together those poor farmers. They built lodging houses and infirmaries providing medical care. Farm working in the fields around and milking cattle fed the farmers. A very innovative social adventure began.