Franklin, Mississippi facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Franklin, Mississippi
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Franklin Church, built 1841
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 Franklin, Mississippi
Location in Mississippi
Franklin, Mississippi
Location in the United States
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| Country | United States |
| State | Mississippi |
| County | Holmes |
| Elevation | 331 ft (101 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| ZIP code |
39095
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| Area code(s) | 662 |
| GNIS feature ID | 670157 |
Franklin is an unincorporated community located in Holmes County, Mississippi. Mississippi Highway 17 passes through Franklin, which is approximately 7 miles (11 km) south of Lexington, the county seat, and approximately 12 miles (19 km) north of the town of Pickens.
This was long an area of cotton plantations. In the antebellum era, labor was provided by thousands of enslaved African Americans. After the war, many freedmen continued to work the land as sharecroppers and tenant farmers.
History
In 1900, Franklin had a population of 80. It was an early place of European-American settlement and developing cotton plantations from the 1830s, after which most of the Choctaw people were removed to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. The American migrants were mostly from South Carolina and Virginia, and brought some slaves with them. Others they bought through the domestic slave trade.
The settlement had a post office in the early 1900s.
Located a short distance east of the settlement is the Franklin Church and Cemetery. Erected in 1841 using labor by enslaved African Americans, the church had two front entrances, one for men and one for women.
On January 2, 1865, this was the site of a Civil War battle involving 3,300 Federal mounted troops and 1,100 Confederate Home Guards led by General William Wirt Adams. The Union Army won this battle and took numerous prisoners. The church is still in use; cannonballs holes from the Civil War have been left visible.
