Gettysburg Address Boulder
On the Town Common in Franklin sits the Gettysburg Address Boulder, one of the town’s meaningful Civil War Memorials. Dedicated in 1913 by the Grand Army of the Republic Post 60, an organization of Union veterans who served during the Civil War. This is the first monument that I have seen that has the full text of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address delivered on November 19, 1863, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
The memorial reflects the important role that Civil War veterans played in shaping public memory during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Grand Army of the Republic, known as G.A.R. became one of the most influential veteran’s organizations in American history. Across the country, its members worked to honor fallen soldiers, preserve the memory of the Union Cause, and remind future generations of the sacrifices made during the Civil War.
By the time this monument was dedicated in 1913, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address had already become one of the most important statements of national purpose and democratic ideals. The speech transformed the meaning of the Civil War by describing it as a test of whether a nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal could endure. For Civil War veterans, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, captured a deeper meaning of the sacrifices made by those who fought and died during the war.
The veterans who placed this monument here understood that remembrance is about carrying ideals forward into the future. The Gettysburg Address Boulder stands as a reminder that democracy and civic responsibility are values that belong in communities like Franklin.
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Dean College
Dean College is another institution that reinforces how the town of Franklin identities itself with education. Founded in 1865, shortly after the Civil War, Dean College has been part of Franklin’s landscape for generations and remains one of the landmarks of the town center. The school was originally founded as Dean Academy through the generosity of Dr. Oliver […]
Spanish-American War Memorial
Among the memorials on the Franklin town common, ist his mounted naval style gun and plaque commemorating Franklin residents who served in the Spanish-American War of 1898. The gun is a direct physical reminder of how warfare was changing at the turn of the twentieth century, when modern naval power began reshaping America’s role in […]
St. Mary’s Catholic Church
The striking brick structures of St. Mary Parish have stood as one of the defining landmarks of downtown Franklin for nearly a century. The current church was completed in 1928 after an early St Mary’s church was destroyed by fire in 1900. The parish dates back much earlier. Catholic worship in Franklin began in the […]
