Franklin County, Nebraska: History
The settlement of Franklin County began after General Eugene Carr's 1869 Republican River Expedition subdued the Cheyenne in the area. In Organized settlements appeared starting in 1870, with the Thompson Colony establishing Riverton along Thompson Creek in September, followed by the Republican Land and Claim Association (also called the Knight Colony) founding Franklin on November 25.
Franklin County was officially established on March 3, 1871, by Governor David Butler's proclamation, with Franklin as the initial county seat. In 1872, however, the Plattsmouth Town Company founded Waterloo (later Bloomington) a mile east, igniting a fierce contest for the county seat. An 1872 election favored Bloomington, but irregularities culminating in the 1874 theft of county records by Bloomington supporters delayed the shift until Bloomington, bolstered by its designation as a U.S. Land Office site, prevailed in another election later that year. The arrival of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad in Franklin in 1879 drove population growth in the county from a handful of settlers in 1870 to over 5,000 by 1882.
The first schoolhouse opened in Franklin in 1872, followed by the Franklin Academy in 1881. Religious life took root with the Methodist Episcopal Church organizing in Franklin in 1872, while commerce grew with the county's first newspaper, the Franklin County Guardsman, launched in 1874 by H.W. Fallaws. By the early 20th century, Franklin had emerged as a more prosperous and centrally located town than Bloomington. The issue came to a head in 1920 when Franklin petitioned for a new county seat election. On November 2, 1920, voters overwhelmingly favored moving the seat back to Franklin, finally ending the county seat dispute.:377