The municipality of Franklin was officially recognized in 1857. Its territory was named in memory of Sir John Franklin (1786-1847), an English explorer who traveled to the mouth of the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories. However, it was not until 1973 that it obtained its current status following the merger of the township of Franklin and the parish of Saint-Antoine-Abbé-Partie-Nord-Est.
The two main centers are geographically located as follows: Saint-Antoine-Abbé at the intersection of Route 201 and Route 209; and Franklin-Centre at the intersection of Route 202 and Route 209. In addition, the municipality includes the rural area of Doréa and the localities of Maritana and Bridgetown.
Settlement of the Franklin lands began quite early. Indeed, the first settler named Asa Smith settled there around 1788. About ten years later, around the beginning of the 19th century, other settlers settled there from the United States, Ireland and England.
The first school at Franklin Center was built in 1830 and the Township of Franklin was incorporated by detachment from the Township of Hemmingford in 1857.
A legendary character known to all Quebecers, it was at Saint-Antoine-Abbé that Antoine Labelle (Curé Labelle) held his first office as parish priest at the Church of Saint-Antoine-Abbé, from 1859 to 1863, named in this by the bishop of the diocese of Montreal, Monsignor Ignace Bourget. Curé Labelle was the first to occupy the presbytery, a building still in place and in very good condition, although its vocation has changed over the years. The young priest had to face both strong dissension among his co-religionists and a strong Protestant presence. Although he was already asserting his qualities as a leader of men by overcoming these obstacles, he was nevertheless repeatedly watched by discouragement: sometimes he secretly confessed to his bishop that he was tempted to miss his priesthood, sometimes he wished he could hide in a monastery. Assailed by financial difficulties, he had to contract debts. Crushed under their weight, the one who would later be rightly considered one of the most ardent champions of the fight against the emigration of his compatriots to the United States, was brought, with a heavy heart, on November 12 1867, to ask his bishop to let him go to an American diocese where a higher salary would allow him to settle his debts and pay a pension to his mother. Rather than accede to this request, Bishop Bourget appointed him, on the following May 15, parish priest of the prosperous parish of Saint-Jérôme, a position he would hold until his death. Curé Labelle would later become one of the main characters in the television series Les Belles Histoires des pays d'en haut (1956-1970, a classic of the Quebec television landscape.
In 1868, the post office under the name of Franklin Center was opened.
#Franklin #QC #quebec #MRC #Tourism #Municipality #Leisure #Development
