4 CITY OF FRANKLIN, TENNESSEE another 7,000 as casualties. The nearby 1830 Carter House was used as Federal Headquarters during the Battle. The Confederate Army used Carnton Plantation as a field hospital during and after the Battle. The Courthouse, the First Presbyterian Church, and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church all served as hospitals. Reminders of the Battle of Franklin and the Civil War remain throughout the City. The ladies of Chapter 14 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) raised more than $2,700 to purchase and erect a forty-three foot tall monument in the center of the town’s public square. From atop a tall column, the statue of a Confederate infantryman gazes wearily to the South. The monument was unveiled on November 30, 1899. Ten thousand people traveled to Franklin for the ceremony. As the twentieth century began, Franklin remained a small country town that increasingly seemed to be less isolated from the world. Franklin’s rural location was served by the railroad, and gradually as the century turned, other hallmarks of modernity arrived – motorcars, telephones and electricity. In 1901 most of the dirt or loose macadam roads leading in and out of Franklin were officially known as turnpikes and were private toll roads. Overseers were appointed for county owned roads, the maintenance of the turnpikes was primarily a private concern, as were the amount of tolls charged. The 1920s saw a movement to eliminate the toll roads gathering momentum despite worries over tax burden. By 1924 the Williamson County government had begun the slow process of purchasing the various toll roads. Throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s, Franklin remained a farming community with an economy based primarily on agriculture with tobacco as the dominant cash crop. By the 1960s, highways from Nashville were starting to bring new development to the region. The construction of Interstate 65 in the 1960s accelerated the pace of change and development as farming became less attractive economically than housing and commercial development. Similar to what was taking place in many older historic cities and towns around the country, the rapid change fostered by I- 65 sparked an active historic preservation movement in Franklin and Williamson County. A small group of citizens recognized the need for an organization to protect and preserve the area’s architectural, geographic and cultural heritage. The Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County was founded in 1967 to perform activities such as: survey historic resources, nominate properties to the National Register of Historic Places, sponsor educational programs, and buy and sell historic buildings.
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