Franklin Cemetery

In 1827 Elijah Bullock, one of the founders of the Stoughton Bullock Settlement (renamed Franklin in 1828), set aside land for a burial ground. This parcel known as the “the Old Plat”, is in the southeast corner of the cemetery. The cemetery contains the remains of some of Franklin’s earliest settlers. Of the fifteen original landowners, four are buried here: Melvin Drake, Hiram Pike, William Stoughton, and Jonathan Worthing. Franklin Cemetery began as a one-acre burial ground in 1827. The first of six expansions occurred in 1848 when Benjamin and Charlotte Worthing donated an acre of farmland adjacent to the original cemetery. The Franklin Cemetery Society organized in 1852 to manage and maintain the burial ground. The cemetery displays typical nineteenth-century grave markers, including urns, obelisks, tree trunks, weeping willows, and benches.