Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of the Franklin townsite on the east edge of Lawrence: industrial lots, fields and woods beside Highway 10

Franklin

A proslavery town four miles from free-state Lawrence, raided twice in 1856. Its houses were hauled away to rebuild Lawrence after 1863, and only its cemeteries are left.

38°56′15″N 95°11′07″W · ≈860 ft

Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).

Townsite gone · 2025 report

Nothing of the town stands. The Franklin Cemetery, on a hill north of Kansas Highway 10, was cleared by volunteers from 2016 and in February 2025 its caretakers filed plans for a private driveway, per the Lawrence Journal-World. We found no visiting rules for it. Its only drive now is an unimproved track off K-10, a busy highway.

Overview

Lawrence's proslavery neighbor

Franklin started in 1853 as a trading post on the high ground between the Kansas and Wakarusa rivers, about four miles southeast of where Lawrence would rise. When Kansas Territory opened in 1854, settlers from Missouri and the South made it a proslavery town, while Lawrence became the free-state stronghold. It was also the first stage stop west of Westport.

In 1856 the rivalry turned to shooting. Sheriff Samuel Jones based his men at Franklin, and a blockhouse there held arms and a cannon seized when Lawrence was sacked that May. Free-state men raided the town in June and again in August, when they burned the fort's door and carried off the cannon.

Franklin was incorporated in 1857, but the territory went free-state and the town faded. After Quantrill's raid burned Lawrence in 1863, many Franklin houses were dismantled and moved there. The post office closed in 1867. The townsite lies inside Lawrence's city limits today, and the name survives on Franklin Road.

Timeline

Bleeding Kansas, up close

  1. Franklin begins as a trading post and squatter claim between the Kansas and Wakarusa rivers, east of where Lawrence will stand.
  2. A post office opens. By late 1855 the town has about a dozen homes and businesses, mostly settlers from the South.
  3. Sheriff Samuel J. Jones makes Franklin his base. A blockhouse, Franklin's Fort, holds arms and the cannon taken in the May 21 attack on Lawrence.
  4. First Battle of Franklin: a small free-state party raids the town at night looking for the cannon. One Franklin man is killed.
  5. Second Battle of Franklin: at least 75 free-state men under James H. Lane burn the fort's door with a hay wagon and carry off the cannon, "Old Sacramento."
  6. Franklin is incorporated. A ferry opens on the Kansas River north of town.
  7. Quantrill's raiders pass through on their way to Lawrence. Afterward many Franklin houses are taken down and moved to rebuild Lawrence.
  8. The post office closes.
  9. The old stone fort is razed.
  10. The last known burials in the Franklin Cemetery: records run to 1915 per The Leaven, and the newest burial found is from 1917 per the Journal-World.
  11. Knights of Columbus volunteers begin clearing the overgrown Catholic cemetery.
  12. Plans are filed at Lawrence City Hall for a new drive so the cemetery can take burials again.

Sources differ on Franklin's size. Wikipedia counts about a dozen homes and businesses in late 1855, while one older account puts the town above 2,000 people in 1860. Legends of Kansas lists the year's fights near Franklin as the Battle of Franklin in June and the Battle of Fort Saunders in August.

What's here

Two cemeteries on the hill

Little marks the town. A 1927 newspaper already wrote that only fertile fields marked the spot, and today the townsite near 23rd Street and the South Lawrence Trafficway holds fields, woods and the industrial lots of Lawrence's east edge.

The cemeteries are what remain. The Catholic cemetery stands on a hill north of Kansas Highway 10, east of 23rd and O'Connell and a few hundred yards east of the Hershey's Salty Snacks plant in Lawrence Venture Park. The Leaven reported in 2017 that the land was deeded as a cemetery in 1870, that its oldest stone dates from 1869, and that about 52 burials are known but only 17 stones were found. The Protestant cemetery, on the next hill east, had nearly disappeared.

By February 2025, after years of work days by the Knights of Columbus, the Lawrence Journal-World described the Catholic cemetery as looking like an old hilltop country cemetery, with only a handful of graves marked. Its caretakers had filed plans for a private driveway on the north side of the 10-acre site and meant to add markers on its history.

Older sources mention more. One undated account describes an old stone building used for hay storage on the west side of the road and a cemetery overgrown with brush; Legends of Kansas, updated December 2025, notes an old sidewalk along one street. We couldn't confirm either from a dated visit.

The historic maps tell the story. The 1885 Lawrence sheet still draws Franklin's street grid south of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe line. The 1950 Lawrence East sheet shows farms on the same ground and a cemetery on the hill north of Highway 10.

  • Franklin (Catholic) Cemetery, restored since 2016
  • Protestant cemetery, nearly gone
  • An old stone building (reported, undated)
  • Franklin Road and the street name
USGS topographic map of the Franklin townsite on the east edge of Lawrence
USGS The National Map, topo. The townsite south of Highway 10.
Aerial view of industrial lots, fields and woods around a road junction, with a highway at upper right
Aerial imagery, same area. Industrial lots and fields where the town stood; Highway 10 at upper right.

Historic maps

Franklin on USGS maps, 1885–1983

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Franklin, 1885
Lawrence sheet, 1885, 1:125,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Franklin lies on the east edge of Lawrence, a short drive from downtown by Haskell Avenue and 23rd Street. From Kansas City the route takes I-35 and K-10 west. The cemetery is on the hill north of K-10; its only drive is an unimproved track off the highway.

USGS topographic map of the country between Lawrence and the Franklin townsite with the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Lawrence4.9 miabout 12 min
  1. From downtown, take East 7th Street and Connecticut Street south.1.1 mi
  2. Bear right onto Barker Avenue, then left onto East 15th Street.0.6 mi
  3. Turn right onto Haskell Avenue.1.0 mi
  4. Turn left onto East 23rd Street.1.5 mi
  5. Turn right onto Franklin Road, then left onto East 25th Street to North 1360 Road.0.8 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The routes end on city and county streets at the townsite, which is now fields, woods and industrial lots. There is nothing of the town to see from the road.
  • The cemetery's existing drive is an unimproved track off K-10. The city did not want funeral traffic turning there, per the Journal-World in February 2025; take care if you stop.
  • Wikipedia's town point and its point for Franklin's Fort lie about half a mile apart; the map uses the town point.

Photos

Have photos of Franklin?

We haven’t added photographs of Franklin yet. If you’ve visited, share your photos and a field report below.

Visitor reports

Been to Franklin?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Nearby

Other sites near Franklin

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Kansas index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Franklin": county, road rating, climate, best time, 1860 population, the old stone building and overgrown cemetery, the 1867 post office closing.
  2. Wikipedia, "Franklin, Douglas County, Kansas", retrieved October 2026: coordinates, founding, 1855 size and post office, Sheriff Jones, the fort, both 1856 battles, incorporation, Quantrill, the moved houses, the 1867 closing, the fort razed about 1912, the 1927 newspaper, the site inside Lawrence and Franklin Road.
  3. Wikipedia, "Franklin's Fort", retrieved October 2026: the blockhouse, the two battles and the fort's coordinates.
  4. Wikipedia, "List of ghost towns in Kansas", retrieved October 2026: Franklin, Douglas County, listed as a ghost town.
  5. Legends of Kansas, "Franklin, Kansas" (updated December 2025): October 1853 founding, trading post and stage stop, the battles' names, the 1857 ferry and store, the moved houses, the old sidewalk.
  6. Joe Bollig, "Lawrence Knights clean historic Franklin cemetery," The Leaven, March 31, 2017: the Catholic and Protestant cemeteries, 1870 deed, oldest stone 1869, about 52 burials and 17 stones, the 2016 cleanup.
  7. Chad Lawhorn, "Plans filed to bring once overgrown, largely forgotten cemetery back into use...," Lawrence Journal-World, February 25, 2025: the cemetery's location and condition, the 1917 burial, the planned drive and markers, the K-10 track.
  8. Elevation from a USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Status checked against the sources above on October 29, 2026.

Photo and map credits