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"Old American Stock" of Southern extraction. Southern ideas govern our social intercourse and Southern hospitality is dispersed.
The traveler passing through the county upon our public highways is always greeted with an affable "Good-day, Sir," and if he should stop at a farm house in quest of information he will be politely invited to "light and come in."
Refreshments will be offered him so cordially and unostentatiously that he at once concludes that he has found a county where kindness, chivalry and hospitality do not entirely belong to the ages that are past."

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Kaskaskia and Shawneetown were the leading towns of Illinois in 1812. Shawneetown was a port of entry on the Ohio for emigrants from the east and south.
There was a demand for travel overland from Kaskaskia to Shawneetown and consequently, a public road was needed to connect these rival towns. The Territory of Illinois asked Congress for an appropriation for cutting out the shortest route road from Shawneetown on the Ohio to Kaskaskia on the Mississippi. Congress did not grant this request at this time; as our government was in war at the time. But in 1816, Congress granted the road and appropriated $8,000.00 to have it surveyed and cut out. The road was cut out from Kaskaskia to Dements settlement fifty miles from Kaskaskia in 1817. Dement's settlement was where Plumfield is now in this county. The road was completed in 1819 after Franklin County was organized and Illinois had become a state.
There was no money for building bridges across the streams such as Little Muddy, Big Muddy and the Saline Creeks. The commissioners of the new county contracted with Samuel McClintock the progenitor of the McClintock family in this county to build a toll bridge across the Big Muddy where Plumfield is now.
This old road came across Six Mile Township, crossed Big Muddy at Plumfield through West Frankfort over Frankfort Hill, through Garret's Prairie by way of Fitt's Hill, Jordan Fork and Fancy Farm.
Houses were built for entertaining travelers as they passed through the wilderness. These places of entertainment were called taverns. Moses Garret kept one 3 miles east of Frankfort Heights, which place, for eight years, was the first

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county seat of the new county. There were several taverns on this road through the county.
This road was the main thoroughfare for emigrants who came to the county from 1818 to 1840.
The Shawneetown end of this old road, ushered in more people that came into Franklin County, in an early day, than any other road.
The emigrants coming into the county over this road were largely from Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, or the Carolinas, carrying with them Southern ideas, and customs which later had great influence over the county in a political way.
This old road is now as old as the county. This year is the centennial for the road. It runs largely on the survey made by the government in 1817. In Cave Township the road has been changed some, but in the main it is as originally surveyed.
The St. Louis and Shawneetown road was later established.

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Kaskaskia soon lost its power when the state capital was moved to Vandalia and the town began to wane.
St. Louis soon outstripped Kaskaskia. There was a need of roads to St. Louis. So the Shawneetown road by way of Benton, then the new county seat, and on to Du Quoin, and to St. Louis was established. The settlers of Franklin County did a great deal of trading with St. Louis going in caravans or groups and camping out on the way.
This road runs through the county very nearly as it did when first surveyed.
The Illinois Central Railroad was built through Du Quoin and Tamaroa so the trading with Shawneetown began to decrease and Du Quoin and Tamaroa trade increased.
Star route mail line was established between Benton and Du Quoin on the Du Quoin road.
The towns of McLeansboro and Frankfort were connected by a road that had a peculiar beginning.
A direct road running straight across the country not following a land line was the kind of road wanted. To get this direct line from McLeansboro to Frankfort they made use of the instinct in animal nature to survey the line. A mare and colt were selected to do the surveying. The colt was left at McLeansboro and the mare was taken to Frankfort and turned loose. She, following the instinct of nature, took the most direct line home to her colt. Men followed her, blazing the way by cutting on the trees. This was the method by which the road was surveyed. The road came down from Frankfort Hill diagonally across Crawford Prairie through Knob Prairie in Eastern Township, then through Knight's Prairie to McLeansboro. Some trace of this old road on the original surveyed line can plainly be seen to this day.
Before the days of Benton, Frankfort was the county seat and leading town of Central Southern Illinois. There was much travel between McLeansboro and Frankfort over this famous old road.

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Another old road played a very conspicuous part in the development of Southern Illinois and Franklin County although it did not cross the county, yet came quite near so that many emigrants came into the county by way of this old road. This road is known as the "Old Goshen" road leading from the Edwardsville Country to Shawneetown. Edwardsville, northeast of East St. Louis a few miles, became a fast growing town, rivaling Shawneetown, Kaskaskia and Cahokia. This was in a fine farming country of the American bottom. The English people that settled near Edwardsville called their town "Goshen" and in going to Equality for salt made a road by way of Mt. Vernon, through Moore's Prairie, and Knight's Prairie to Equality. There is an old tradition handed down from the early settlers along this road about the people coming down from the north to buy corn in an early day. The frost having killed all the corn in the north, in the southern part of Illinois the corn was not hurt by frost. The people near Goshen had come down the Old Goshen road to Knight's Prairie west of McLeansboro where they stopped to stay over night with one of the early settlers by the name of Knight. The corn buyers accosted the early settler by using the Bible expression "We are the son of Jacob and have come into the land of Egypt to buy corn." From this expression we derived the cognomen of "The land of Egypt." Since then all Southern Illinois is known as "EGYPT" or "The land of Egypt."

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The first settlers of Franklin County did not own the land on which they had settled. Many located on their lands before the country was surveyed out. Consequently they did not know where the boundaries were.
The first entries of land were made in 1814, Frankfort, Cave and Eastern had entries made in that year. In 1818 when the county was organized and when Illinois entered the Union as a state there were only about 16,000 acres in the county in which the settlers had a deed from the government or about one-seventeenth of all. Most of the land entered extends from Plumfield on the Big Muddy to Jordan's Fort, along the Kaskaskia and Shawneetown road.
The following is a list of persons who made the first entries and the date:

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Lewis Barker Denning 1815
Francis Jordan Denning 1816
David Dement Denning 1816
Joseph Estes Ewing 1818
William Frizzell Ewing 1818
John Cox Ewing 1818
A. D. Collins Benton 1828
John R. Williams Benton 1836
Martin Wooly Benton 1836
Moses Garret Frankfort 1814
Elijah Ewing Frankfort 1814
Thomas Roberts Frankfort 1814
Elijah Taylor Northern 1815
Eli Webb Northern 1816
Lazarus Webb Northern 1816
Benj. C. Fisher Eastern 1814
William Neil Eastern 1818
James Aiken Eastern 1836
Francis Jordan Cave 1814
Isaac Moberly Cave 1814
Alex McCreery Cave 1814

The above list is taken from the records of the county. From the above you can see that the townships of Goode, Tyrone, Barren and Six Mile did not have any land entered from the government at the time Illinois was admitted yet people had settled in these townships. A great many settlers lived on land all their life without taking a deed to same. Oftentimes someone would take a deed and get the place with the improvements. After Illinois entered the Union, Congress passed several laws donating to the state certain lands for certain purposes. The lands of Franklin County thus donated by government to state were classified as swamp land, school land and railroad land. The school land was the sixteenth section of each township.

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There were 7,680 acres of land that were sold for the benefit of the schools.
The railroad land of Franklin was donated to Illinois for the building of railroads. The Illinois legislature passed a law incorporating the Illinois Central Railroad Company and granting the railroad land to it. By this means the Illinois Central Railroad got in possession of 33,078 acres in this county distributed as follows:
Goode 7,255 acres, Tyrone 8,802 acres, Six Mile 6,709 acres, Barren 3,447 acres, Browning 3,166 acres, Denning 3,699 acres. About all these lands now have been sold to individuals.
Congress passed a law granting to each of the several states of the Union the swamp land for the purpose of building levees and drains, and to reclaim said lands. The legislature of Illinois passed an act granting the swamp lands to the counties of the state for the purpose of constituting levees and drains and the balance of the land was to be distributed equally among the townships for educational purposes. The county acquired 33,700 acres of swamp land. The townships of the county had the following acres: Goode 380; Tyrone 480; Six Mile 1600; Barren 4360; Browning 5160; Denning 4600; Ewing 800; Benton 5040; Frankfort 4400; Northern 4000; Eastern 1960; Cave 920.
The county court of Franklin County appointed Levi Browning, drainage commissioner. Giving his bond at $10,000.00, he began his work. The lands were surveyed and platted by E. T. Webb the county surveyor at that time. The commissioner began selling the lands as the law directed until all the lands were sold. The price ranging from 25 cents to $4.25 per acre.
The amount of sales was $20,466.83 and the money was spent making a levee across Big Muddy and other streams in the county and making drains for the purpose of reclaiming the lands.
The land entries were slow; in 1850 about one half of the

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lands had been entered. Then Congress passed the "Bit Act" which reduced the price from $1.25 per acre to I2 1/2 cents per acre.
Then there was a rush to Shawneetown to enter land, and in a few years all the land was taken up.

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The pioneers of Franklin County were, as a rule, good hunters. With their faithful hunting dog and their trusty rifle, they could secure the necessary meat for the table. The skins of the animals they made into clothing or sold to the fur traders. The woods abounded with abundant game for the dextrous hunter, such as bear, deer, raccoons, mink, otter and beaver. On the prairies of Franklin County were countless herds of wild buffalo.
Wild bees lived in the trees and stored away their honey and wax.
The pioneers learned to hunt bees as well as to hunt for game. The wild honey and wax was a great source of revenue for the pioneer. It was taken to Shawneetown or Kaskaskia where it was shipped to New Orleans and exchanged for sugar, coffee and ammunition. In early days this territory was infested with wild hogs, which grew fat on the mast. The early settler would have a "hog killing" time hunting these swines, as oftentimes the hogs would turn on the dogs, the dogs running to their masters and their masters were compelled to take a tree for safety. This wild pork was dressed and hauled to Shawneetown then sold for $1.50 to $2.00 per hundred weight.
After building their huts the pioneers began their "clearing" getting ready for their crop, which was a few acres cultivated in tobacco, and corn and pumpkins. The tobacco furnished the entire family in chewing and smoking as the modern cigar and manufactured tobacco were unknown in those days.
The early inhabitants of Franklin County made their own clothing. The cotton and wool were carded, spun and woven into cloth, from which their clothing was made.

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