Franklin County, home of cities such as Union and Washington, is officially organized and named in honor of Benjamin Franklin, according to a Missouri Secretary of State history. The county went into effect Jan. 1, 1819. This hand-lettered document published by the Saint Louis Atlas Pub. Co. is from an atlas map of the county circa 1878.

Photo credit: State Historical Society of Missouri. https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/plat/id/1738/