Through the time from 1870 until 1879, many of the people in Robertson County complained about the location of the county seat at Calvert. Several times efforts were made to remove it but all failed until, in December 1879, a majority of the votes decreed that Morgan should replace Calvert and the town thereby became the new county seat.

When the results of the removal election were made public, families began moving to Morgan. On January 1, 1880, the Texas Land Company had over a hundred applications for property in the area. Citizens at Englewood moved "en masse" and many came from distant places.

Franklin received its name in 1880, when commissioners learned there was another Texas town by the name of Morgan. The remedy was simple; Judge T. J. Simmons decreed that since the original county seat had been named "Franklin" to honor Francis Slauter, and since the new town was to be on land owned by that distinguished man of the early days of settlement, so should the new town honor him. Thus, there after the original county seat was referred to as "Old Franklin" and the new as "New Franklin." In time, "Old Franklin" was forgotten and the "New" was dropped from the name of the second town.

In early January, 1880, Captain I. R. Overall and Captain H. Holdeman were appointed to prepare a building in Franklin for county archives, and Overall was instructed to secure records from Calvert and take them to the new county seat. Overall's assignment was more difficult than he thought it would be for some of the office holders in Calvert refused to cooperate with him. After several arguments, he left Calvert with the "incomplete archives" and deposited them in a building prepared for the purpose.

On March 13, 1880, Ira H. Evans, an attorney with the Texas Land Company, in reply to a request from county officials for a land donation, signed a contract deeding to Robertson County "alternate business lots and residential blocks in the old town of Morgan," which was located on subdivisions and of the north half of a survey made in the name of Francis Slauter, and a like subdivision in the name of R. S. Glass and the Texas Land Company.

The map of the new town as filed with the county clerk showed 88 blocks of lots, two town squares, one on each side of the railroad, and the streets and avenues were named to honor neighboring towns and some of the first citizens in the community. A five-acre plot was marked off for a community cemetery. Alternate lots, the squares, and the cemetery were deeded to the county. The Land Company and Glass kept the remaining property to offer for sale.

The shape of the town was rectangular, running from the northwest to the southeast. The railroad cut through the center of the town, from west to east; there were seven northwest to southeast streets and fourteen ran from the southwest to the northeast. All the long streets, except Main and Glass, came to a "dead end" at the railroad. The streets that ran parallel to the railroad were called "short ones" and the intersecting avenues were called "long ones." Some of the families honored by having streets named for them were Cavitt, Overall, Wheelock, Lewis, Carter, Morehead, Gay, Decherd, Grant, Simmons, Griffin, Giraud, Jones, Hearne, Calvert, and Ripley.

The first meeting of the commissioners court in Franklin was held March 8, 1880. Judge T. J. Simmons presided and was authorized to sell lots and blocks belonging to the county. At this meeting I. R. Overall was authorized to select the location for the erection of a jail "on the courthouse square."