From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Nov. 29, 1987:

The 130-year-old Franklin Cemetery, five acres of overgrown and almost forgotten graves, was not in any danger from nearby construction. The 300-acre East Hills Business Park, a joint effort of the city, county, and Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, was not going to encroach upon the old graveyard, according to officials. (A second cemetery, the Franklin Catholic Cemetery, also on the eastern edge of the industrial park, was likewise excluded from the development plans.) However, the problem remained of how to establish who had the legal right to decide the future of the land and who would eventually take responsibility for the cemetery’s maintenance. Local researchers knew the names of 23 people buried there, but they believed that there could be as many as 50. However, few markers still stood in the area, with only indentations showing where dozens of early settlers as well as at least five Civil War soldiers were buried. Historical accounts showed that the early settlement of Franklin had been established as a townsite in 1853, but with the discontinuation of its river ferry and post office in the 1860s, the town had ceased to exist, with few signs of it remaining by 1900.