Hometown History #3: Gold!

In the 1890s, Franklin’s wealth came largely from textiles, and for a short time in 1898, from the ground. On November 17, the Boston Post reported on a sensational “gold rush” in Franklin. “There is but one topic here today,” wrote the correspondent. “It is gold on every tongue and from present indications, it bids fair to be more than the usual nine days’ wonder. Although no Klondike boom has struck the town yet, Franklin calmly awaits and half expects it.”

The correspondent was not exaggerating, as the article went on to explain: “The hotel and restaurant keepers are seriously thinking of building additions and sending to Boston for an extra supply of canned goods. Sign painters confidently expect large increases in orders. They are practising [sic] on such signs as ‘Come to the Miners’ Rest,’ ‘Gold Dust Accepted Here,’ ‘The Only Place to Get Real Klondike Beef Stews,’ ‘Hamburg Steak a la Dawson and Franklin.’’”

“The trains to Franklin—passenger and freight—were full of passengers coming to prospect and invest in gold. In the words of the correspondent, “It was a woman who created all this excitement, and also discovered the gold vein...”

Mrs. E.P. Blackmer was the person who had discovered the gold seam 15 years earlier. She had kept the find to herself, telling no one—not even her husband and closest friends. The vein of quartz and gold ran in a low ledge from Alpine Street to Fales Street. Blackmer spent months buying up her neighbor’s land along the seam, before revealing the discovery. Blackmer’s father was a surveyor, and she had known about the gold from a young age, but only confirmed her belief when Jerome Prince, a mining expert from Milford, arrived in town with a machine for finding gold. She recruited Prince, and made him a partner in the find.

As word got around, men, women and children began buying up hatchets and hammers from all of the local hardware stores, and breaking off chunks of rock where it came to the surface on private property, or along Fales Street. According to the correspondent, people snuck around town with pockets bulging with rock, while other groups lit up Fales Street throughout the night with lamps as they carried off rock from the roadside. What exactly became of Franklin’s gold rush is unclear, with interest probably petering out when no meaningful quantities were found, but it is worth noting that Franklin wasn’t alone. For example, gold was reportedly sought in locations in Wrentham during the 1800s, too.

Adapted from the book, Franklin: From Puritan Precinct to 21st Century 'Edge City', by Eamon McCarthy Earls, copyright 2012, available at Amazon.com