Franklin County became an independent County on September 9, 1784 and was named after Benjamin Franklin. This county traces its origins to the earliest subdivisions created by William Penn.

Major James McCalmont (1737-1809) Indian Scout, Indian Fighter and Revolutionary Patriot, became Representative to the State Legislature in Franklin County’s first election in 1784. The population at that time was estimated at 13,000 and the first real estate levy netted $1,115.27.

The County paid Benjamin Chambers $25.67 for the land to erect the first Courthouse in Chambersburg in 1793. It was heated with ten wood stoves and crowned with a cupola, bell and weather vane.

A new Courthouse was built in 1842, replacing the original one; the weather vane tower was replaced with a clock tower upon which a sculptured form of Benjamin Franklin was placed.

Chambersburg was the only northern town to suffer during the Civil War. Because the town could not raise $100,000 in gold, General McCausland’s forces burned the main part of town, about 537 buildings, including the Courthouse which was gutted on July 30, 1864. County records had been removed before the fire; therefore, County documents date back to 1784.

The present Courthouse as reconstructed in 1865 from the burned-out shell and a 1/3 addition was attached in 1902. The Courthouse Annex was built in 1979.

Team competition caught on after the Civil War. Even though football, field and track, and basketball eventually became popular, the big hit in Franklin County was baseball, a game learned during Civil War troop encampments. The first baseball game in the nation to be played at night under lights was in Chambersburg in 1883. Many well-known players began in Franklin County but the best known was Nelson (Nellie) Fox of St. Thomas Township, who played for the White Sox for 14 years and then the Astros for two years.

John Hill, the oldest white man who ever lived in North America, was a soldier in Queen Ann’s War in England (1702-1713). He chose to stay in America after the French and Indian War and became Franklin County’s adopted son living in the St. Thomas vicinity until he died in 1830 at the age of 144.

John Bourns (1747-1802) of Washington Township, was the builder of the first cannon made in America and used in the Revolutionary War.

During the Indian Wars, Franklin County had 23 forts, one of which was Chamber’s Fort.

Dr. John McClellan (1762-1846) of Greencastle, successfully removed a cancerous parotid gland in 1805. It was the first operation of its kind in America. Anesthetics was not yet known, and the patient recovered.

Patrick Gass, born in 1771 at Falling Springs near Chambersburg, was the sole survivor of the Lewis and Clark Overland Expedition to the Pacific of 1804-1806.

George Washington slept in several locations in Franklin County.

James Buchanan, our 15th United States President, was born in Mercersburg in 1791. His niece, Harriet Lane, who was the White House hostess for her uncle, was born there, also.

Franklin County had the first Jewish community west of Harrisburg, established in 1840.

John Brown, the well-known abolitionist, lived in Franklin County and occasionally taught Sunday School at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Mont Alto.

The Underground Railroad in Chambersburg played an important part in freeing slaves during the Civil War era.

Dr. Benjamin Rush Senseney developed the first commercial vaccine virus for small pox in the United States in 1874 in Hamilton Township.