Frankford Township is a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

Mower County, Minnesota Mower County () is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,029. The county seat is Austin. Mower County comprises the Austin Micropolitan Statistical Area and is included in the Rochester-Austin ...

, United States. The population was 358 at the 2000 census. The largest town located partially within the township is Grand Meadow, with a population of 945 people. The eastern half of Grand Meadow is in Frankford Township and the western half is in Grand Meadow Township. All other areas of the township are unincorporated. There was a village called Frankford on Deer Creek in the far eastern part of the township near Fillmore County. It almost became the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

but lost this distinction to

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Geography

According to the

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, the township has a total area of , of which is land and 0.03% is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 358 people, 125 households, and 101 families residing in the township. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was 11.9 people per square mile (4.6/km). There were 131 housing units at an average density of 4.4/sq mi (1.7/km). The racial makeup of the township was 100.00%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

. There were 125 households, out of which 38.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 76.0% were married couples living together, 4.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.4% were non-families. 16.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.86 and the average family size was 3.24. In the township the age distribution of the population showed 28.2% under the age of 18, 7.5% from 18 to 24, 28.5% from 25 to 44, 26.8% from 45 to 64, and 8.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 114.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 110.7 males. The median income for a household in the township was $56,250, and the median income for a family was $61,250. Males had a median income of $31,641 versus $31,771 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the township was $21,845. About 4.0% of families and 5.6% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 4.4% of those under age 18 and 11.9% of those age 65 or over.

Frankford Village

The village of Frankford Village was settled along the banks of Deer Creek in 1854 by Lewis Patchin, Bartlett Leathers, and Byron Woodworth. The town was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

ted in 1856 and it was declared the county seat. At one time it was a bustling

frontier A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. Australia The term "frontier" was frequently used in colonial Australia in the meaning of country that borders the unknown or uncivilised, th ...

village that had three stores, a schoolhouse, a cemetery, three

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

and

wagon A wagon (or waggon) is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by Working animal#Draft animals, draft animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are i ...

shops, a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

, a chair and

coffin A coffin or casket is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, for burial, entombment or cremation. Coffins are sometimes referred to as caskets, particularly in American English. A distinction is commonly drawn between "coffins" a ...

factory, a shoe shop and the Patchin Hotel which also served as the

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

. County court was held here and the county's records were stored in an upstairs room of Patchin's Hotel. After being passed over as the county's seat, its population slowly dwindled. When the Southern Minnesota Railroad was laid in 1870 it ran four miles south of the village and this development is what ultimately spelled doom for the once-thriving community. Rather than move the city ''to'' the railroad as the citizens of the Old Village of Le Roy did, the citizens simply relocated to other parts of the township and county. All that is left of the old village is a cemetery, which is still used, that can be found in the northeast quadrant of section 24 of Frankford Township.

Cemeteries

*Frankford Cemetery is located in the northeast quadrant of section 24 of the township. It is directly south of the Old Frankford Village. *Bear Creek Cemetery is located in the southeast quadrant of section 7 of the township. Its oldest known burial dates to 1872. *Methodist Norwegian Cemetery is a deserted cemetery located in the southeast quadrant of section 7 of the township. Its last burial dates to 1940. *Sever Temanson Cemetery is located in the southwest corner of the northwest quadrant of section 8 of the township. It is now not used, but it was used for burials between 1854 and 1870.

Geography

Demographics

Frankford Village

Cemeteries

References

Further reading