FRANKLIN

county, west-central Maine, U.S. It consists of a mountainous region bordered to the northwest by Quebec, Can. Some of the county's highest peaksMount Abraham and Sugarloaf, Crocker, and Saddleback mountainsare located along the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. The chief waterways are Rangeley, Webb, and Kennebago lakes and the Sandy, Androscoggin, and Kennebago rivers. Parklands include Mount Blue and Rangeley Lake state parks and Bigelow Preserve on Flagstaff Lake. County timberland includes maple, birch, spruce, fir, and aspen. Farmington, an early centre of agricultural trade, became the county seat when the county was formed in 1838. The county was named for Benjamin Franklin. The University of Maine at Farmington was founded in 1863. Other towns are Wilton, Jay, Rangeley, and Phillips. Principal industries are paper and wood products, footwear, and tourism. Sugarloaf/USA and Saddleback Mountain are two major ski resorts. Area 1,698 square miles (4,398 square km). Pop. (1990) 29,008; (1996 est.) 29,200. city, Merrimack county, central New Hampshire, U.S., at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers (there forming the Merrimack). The locality was settled in 1748 as Salisbury and was renamed for Benjamin Franklin when the present town was formed in 1828 from parts of Andover, Northfield, Salisbury, and Sanbornton. It was chartered as a city in 1895. The restored birthplace of the orator and statesman Daniel Webster, built in 1780, is a state historic site and museum. The Franklin Falls flood-control dam (completed 1943) is north of the city. The falls provided waterpower for early 19th-century milling operations. Manufactures now consist mainly of plastic and metal products. Pop. (1990) 8,304; (1996 est.) 8,367. county, northwestern Massachusetts, U.S., bordered by New Hampshire and Vermont to the north. It consists of a mountainous, forested region bisected north-south by the Connecticut River. Other waterways include the Deerfield, Millers, and Falls rivers and part of Quabbin Reservoir, one of the world's largest impoundments of high-quality water. More than a dozen state forests provide habitat for upland wildlife. Pocumtuc Indians clashed with European settlers in the region from about 1670 to 1735. Franklin county was created in 1811 and named for Benjamin Franklin. The main towns are Greenfield (the county seat), Montague, and Orange. Deerfield contains about 65 historic houses from the 18th and 19th centuries, several of which feature antiques from the colonial period. Millers Falls is the eastern terminus of the Mohawk Trail scenic highway. The economy is based on forestry and manufacturing, particularly paper products and machine tool accessories. Area 702 square miles (1,819 square km). Pop. (1990) 70,092; (1996 est.) 71,209. county, northeastern New York state, U.S., bordered by Quebec, Can., to the north and mostly occupied by Adirondack Park (1892), one of the largest parks in the United States and the nation's first forest preserve. The low hills in the north, forested in hardwoods, give way to the Adirondack Mountains in the south, heavily wooded with spruce and fir. The highest elevations, which are found in the southern part of the county, include Ampersand, Seward, and Seymour mountains. St. Regis Indian Reservation lies in the northwestern corner of the county. The principal streams are the St. Regis, Salmon, Trout, Chateaugay, and Saranac rivers. The southern mountains are drained by numerous waterways, including Tupper Lake, Raquette Pond, and the Saranac and St. Regis chains of lakes. Iroquoian-speaking Mohawk Indians and Algonquian-speaking Abnaki Indians had villages in the region in the 18th century. Franklin county was created in 1808 following white settlement and named for Benjamin Franklin. The principal communities are Malone (the county seat), Tupper Lake, Moira, and Saranac Lake, where physician Edward Livingston Trudeau founded a sanatorium for the open-air treatment of tuberculosis (1884). Trudeau's most famous patient was Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson, who resided there in 188788. The economy relies on tourism, logging, and dairying. Area 1,632 square miles (4,226 square km). Pop. (1990) 46,540; (1996 est.) 49,335. county, northwestern Vermont, U.S. It is bordered by Quebec, Can., to the north, Lake Champlain to the west, and the Green Mountains to the east. The lowlands of the west rise up into the foothills and mountains of the east. The principal waterway is the Missisquoi River, which flows through the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge and empties into Missisquoi Bay on Lake Champlain. Burton Island, Kamp Kill Kare, and St. Albans Bay state parks are located on St. Albans Bay, and Lake Carmi State Park is on Lake Carmi. Other watercourses are the Lamoille, Trout, and Mill rivers, as well as Black Creek, Fairfield Pond, and Arrowhead Mountain Lake. The primary species of tree are hemlock, hard maple, and white pine. Swanton was inhabited by Abnaki Indians in the 17th century. Franklin county was established in 1792 and named for Benjamin Franklin. President Chester A. Arthur was born near Fairfield in 1829. St. Albans, the county seat, was a regional railroad centre from 1850; the city was the site of the St. Albans Raid (Oct. 19, 1864) during the American Civil War, carried out by Confederate soldiers from Canada. Other communities are Enosburg Falls, Richford, and Montgomery Center. Dairy farming and maple sugar production are major economic activities. Area 637 square miles (1,650 square km). Pop. (1990) 39,980; (1996 est.) 43,465. unofficial state (178590) of the United States of America, comprising the eastern portion of what is now Tennessee and extending to unclaimed lands to the west. The short-lived state was established mainly as a result of North Carolina's cession of its western lands to the United States. Settlers in the isolated mountain wilderness, deserted and largely ignored, formed an association that would make and administer laws. They also required an active militia because they were open to Indian attack. When North Carolina acted to rid itself of the unwanted burden of protecting these remote settlements, the settlers elected delegates who met to discuss the establishment of a new state. Patterning their state constitution on that of North Carolina, the Franklanders (as they called themselves) elected officers who would act under the leadership of John Sevier. Personal rivalries and other factors led to the dissolution of the Franklin union, and, when the federal government in 1790 brought into being the Southwest Territory, it effectively reorganized the area, and the Franklin administration ended. county, southern Pennsylvania, U.S., bordered to the south by Maryland and to the west by Tuscarora Mountain. The county, lying almost wholly within the Appalachian Ridge and Valley physiographic province, consists of a broad central valley that rises to mountains in the west and east. The principal waterways are Conococheague, Antietam, and Conodoguinet creeks. Topographical features include Kittatinny, Blue, Cove, and South mountains. The Appalachian National Scenic Trail runs along the eastern border of the county in the Blue Ridge region. Some recreational areas are Mont Alto and Caledonia state parks and Buchanan and Michaux state forests; Buchanan's Birthplace State Park commemorates James Buchanan, the 15th U.S. president. Fort Benjamin Chambers and Fort Loudon were constructed during the French and Indian War. The county was created in 1784 and named for Benjamin Franklin. In Chambersburg, the county seat, Abolitionist John Brown planned his raid on Harpers Ferry, Va., in 1859. Five years later the Confederate army burned Chambersburg during the American Civil War. The economy depends on manufacturing (industrial machinery and textiles) and agriculture (cattle, dairy, and fruit). Area 772 square miles (1,999 square km). Pop. (1990) 121,082; (1996 est.) 127,035. city, seat of Venango county, northwest Pennsylvania, U.S., at the junction of French Creek and the Allegheny River, 70 miles (113 km) north of Pittsburgh. The site was early occupied by the Indian village of Venango and after 1750 by forts of the French (Fort-Machault), the British (Fort Venango), and the Americans (Fort Franklin). The U.S. fort, erected in 1787, was named for Benjamin Franklin; a town, laid out and incorporated as a borough in 1795, developed around it. Franklin was the site of Pennsylvania's third oil gusher when in 1860 James Evans, a blacksmith, dug a well for water and found oil instead. Within two years Franklin, with nearby Oil City, emerged as the hub of an oil region producing more than 2,000,000 barrels annually. The boom lasted until about 1900, when the oil-production centre shifted to the American Southwest. Among those attracted by the boom was the magnate John D. Rockefeller; John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, was a co-owner of one of the early Franklin wells. The petroleum industry continues to dominate the region's economy. Manufactures include mining equipment, steel products, plastics, and safety equipment. Inc. city, 1868. Pop. (1990) 7,329; (1998 est.) 6,845. city, seat of Williamson county, central Tennessee, U.S., on the Harpeth River, 20 miles (32 km) south-southwest of Nashville. Settled in 1799 and named for Benjamin Franklin, it is known for the bloody American Civil War battle fought there on Nov. 30, 1864. Confederate forces under General John B. Hood made a frontal attack on a Union army entrenched by the river under General John Schofield. The Union troops sustained 2,500 casualties and retreated across the river to Nashville, but not before inflicting heavy losses on the Confederatesmore than 6,000 dead, including six generals (Adams, Carter, Cleburne, Gist, Granbury, and Strahl). The battle marked the failure of Hood's Tennessee campaign and the disintegration of his army a few weeks later at Nashville. Carter House (1830), which served as the Union command post, commemorates the battle and displays Civil War relics. The Confederate Cemetery remains a grim reminder of the carnage. The town has survived as a centre for diversified farming (corn , tobacco, wheat, and cheese) with hardwood-timber and phosphate-mining interests. Pop. (1990) 20,098.