Franklin, IA

Franklin is a city in Lee County, Iowa, United States. The 2020 census counted 131 residents. Franklin is noted for its stone and brick Federal architecture, uncommon in Iowa. Franklin is part of the Fort Madison–Keokuk, IA-IL-MO Micropolitan Statistical Area. The short version is that Franklin carries an earlier story into the places people know and use now. That is the local read on Franklin: its past remains attached to the places people use now. Franklin was populated in the late 1830s by farmers like Alexander Cruickshank and German immigrants Henry and Jacob Abel. The first schoolhouse would be built on the Cruickshank farm in 1839. Franklin is located in Cedar Township.