Franklin

Incorporated as a town in 1876, Franklin began as a Southampton County village in the 1830s. In October, 1862, during the Civil War, Union gunboats on the Blackwater River shelled the town and the railroad station. Several skirmishes occurred nearby in 1862 and 1863. A major fire destroyed 43 buildings in the town on February 26, 1881. The Camp Brothers' lumber mill and later their paper mill, as well as the peanut industry, helped Franklin prosper in this century. Franklin became an incorporated city in 1960.