Franklin

By Guy Scott

In the 1850s, the Port Hope to Lindsay Railway passed through Manvers Township. A station was built in the middle of nowhere just because there was no station nearby and christened Franklin after the nearest sawmill operator: Frank Lyn. Railways were powerful economic factors and soon a hamlet sprang up around the station. Eventually, there were two stores, a blacksmith, a post office, a hotel, grain elevator, cattle yard and 12 homes. The little hamlet flourished until 1912 when a rival railway built the Fleetwood Station to the west. Franklin quickly declined to ghost town status. Only a few occupied houses remained to mark the village site.