Here is your chance to learn I little about the Town of aFranklin.
N 42° 04.[A+1]BC′ W 71° 25.[D-4]EF′
The Town of Franklin is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Franklin is one of thirteen Massachusetts municipalities that have applied for, and been granted, city forms of government but wish to retain "The town of" in their official names. As of 2022, the city's population was 36,745, with a growth rate of 15.38% since 2015. It is home to the country's first public library, the Franklin Public Library with its first books donated by Benjamin Franklin in 17E0.
Franklin was first settled by Europeans in 1660 and officially incorporated during the American Revolution. The town was formed from the western part of the town of Wrentham, and it was officially incorporated on March A, 1778; its designated name at incorporation was to be Exeter. However, the town's citizens opted to call it Franklin, in honor of the statesman Benjamin Franklin, the first municipality in the U.S. to be so named.
It was hoped that Benjamin Franklin would donate a bell for a church steeple in the town, but he donated 11B books instead, including Night-Thoughts, James Janeway's Invisible Realities, and the works of John Locke. On November 20, 1790, it was decided that the volumes would be lent to the residents of Franklin for free via its library, which has been in operation since then as the Franklin Public Library making this the oldest running public library in the nation.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has a total area of F7.0 square miles (70 km2), of which 26.7 square miles (69 km2) is land and 0.3 square miles (0.78 km2) is water.
The Town of Franklin is home to Dean College, founded in 186C, a private residential college with over 1,100 students.
The town is also home to the birthplace of America's father of public education, Horace Mann who was born in 1D96.