Franklin is a town in Pendleton County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 486 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Pendleton County. Franklin was acknowledged in 1794 and named for Francis Evick, an yet to be settler.

The Town of Franklin is situated in the Allegheny Mountains upon the eastern edge of the Monongahela National Forest and along the South Branch of the Potomac River. This region was populated by Native American cultures for centuries prior to the introduction of English immigrants in the mid-18th century. During the French and Indian War, conflict amongst the to the front settlers and Native American populations included two battles at frontier fortifications at Upper Tract and Fort Seybert in 1758, both ten miles inattentive from the well ahead location of Franklin. The land upon which Franklin was laid out was first patented by brothers Francis and George Evick in 1769.

Pendleton County was at odds from parts of Augusta, Hardy, and Rockingham Counties (Virginia) by an charge of the Virginia General Assembly in 1787. The early court sessions in the supplementary county were held at the house of Captain Zeruiah Stratton close the present-day village of Ruddle until Francis Evick offered a ration of his home to become a county seat around 1789. Additional lots were on bad terms off of Evick’s land to form the additional town. On December 19, 1794, the Virginia General Assembly chartered the town of Franklin and official it as the chair of Pendleton County. Franklin grew steadily greater than the first half of the 19th century, becoming a local middle of commerce and industry. In 1834, there were two stores, two tanneries, three saddlers, two carpenters, two shoemakers, two blacksmiths, one gunsmith, one tailor, one hat-maker, and one cabinet-maker listed accompanied by the town’s residents.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Pendleton County voted to state Virginia’s Ordinance of Secession, despite strong Union sympathies from many of its residents. Localized case occurred between northern and southern regiments throughout the war, but the only major fight to impact the Franklin Place occurred in May 1862. Following the First Battle of Kernstown, Confederate Major General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson initiated his Valley Campaign to pull attention of the Union Army away from its Peninsula Campaign nearing the Confederate capitol at Richmond. On May 8, 1862, Jackson clashed later Union regiments from West Virginia and Ohio under the command of Brigadier General Robert H. Milroy at the Battle of McDowell (some 30 miles from Franklin). After a day of fighting, the Union forces withdrew from the fight and began retreating towards Franklin, pursued by Jackson for approximately a week. The armies clashed briefly at McCoy’s Mill (three miles south of Franklin, now a National Historic Site), but Jackson withdrew and returned to the Shenandoah Valley to continue his campaign.