History

Recent History

Villages grew and towns sprang up. More often than not, churches became the centers of community life. There is little question that they had a strong influence on the early inhabitants of Franklin County. One of the earliest churches was Nails Creek Baptist Church founded by Scotch-Irish settlers around 1787. The Hebron Presbyterian Church was established in 1796 and Carroll’s Methodist Church around 1797.

During the 1800s and until the Civil War, the county flourished, and farmers prospered from the growth of cotton, corn, sorghum and other crops. There was a fairly sizable farming population centered close to Carnesville.

Chartered in 1806, the city was named for Judge Thomas Peters Carnes, a noted lawyer and member of Congress of the Revolutionary War era. Befitting its stature as Franklin’s county seat, Carnesville acquired its first courthouse in the same year it was chartered. A second and larger courthouse was built in 1826. It served until the present Neo-classical style courthouse was built in 1906. Because of its classic and impressive architecture, it is now one of the five courthouses in Northeast Georgia listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Lavonia, Royston, and Canon were all chartered between 1874 and 1889. They grew up in response to a railroad running from Toccoa to Elberton. Lavonia and Royston became thriving cotton markets. Each had three cotton gins within the city limits as well as one or two cotton seed oil mills. Cotton harvest days were bustling times in Franklin County. Families and their laborers worked long hours in the fields picking cotton, and some would drive their wagons to the gin at four in the morning just to get a good place in line.

Royston began as a real estate venture of three individuals. The railroad was completed in the late 1870s and by the early 1900s, Royston was one of the strongest cotton and fertilizer markets in the United States.

However, it is in the world of sports that Royston is far better known today. It is the hometown of the legendary Ty Cobb, one of baseball’s greatest players. Even though his hitting record was eventually beaten by Pete Rose, Ty Cobb is still considered by many to be the greatest all-around baseball player of all time. His $100,000 charitable contribution in 1950 near the end of his life started the Cobb Memorial Hospital in Royston.

A short distance from Royston is Franklin Springs. Like the county, this town was also named for Benjamin Franklin. Even though the town was not incorporated until 1924, it started out a hundred years earlier as a resort area after mineral springs were discovered. For many years, people from all over the Southeast traveled here to enjoy the reputed benefits of the mineral waters. As a result, the town gained considerable notoriety as a popular health spa.

In the early 20th century, interest in the area as a summer resort waned and attempts to revive the resort failed. In 1919, the Pentecostal Benevolent Association purchased the resort property and established Franklin Springs Institute, now known as Emmanuel College.