e held up to him, Franklin turned
away. It was sure to him that he must set his influence against this
unorganized day of waste and riotousness. He knew that this perfervid
time could not endure, knew that the sweep of American civilization
must occupy all this land as it had all the lands from the Alleghenies
to the plains. He foresaw in this crude new region the scene of a
great material activity, a vast industrial development. The swift
action of the early days was to the liking of his robust nature, and
the sweep of the cattle trade, sudden and unexpected as it had been, in
no wise altered his original intention of remaining as an integer of
this community. It needed no great foresight to realize that all this
land, now so wild and cheap, could not long remain wild and cheap, but
must follow the history of values as it had been written up to the edge
of that time and place.

Of law business of an actual sort there was next to none at Ellisville,
all the transactions being in wild lands and wild cattle, but, as did
all attorneys of the time, Franklin became broker before he grew to be
professional man. Fortunate in securing the handling of the railroad
lands, he sold block after block of wild land to the pushing men who
came out to the "front" in search of farms and cattle ranches. His own
profits he invested again in land. Thus he early found himself making
much more than a livelihood, and laying the foundation of later
fortune. Long since he had "proved up" his claim and moved into town
permanently, having office and residence in the great depot hotel which
was the citadel of the forces of law and order, of progress and
civilization in that land.

The railroad company which founded Ellisville had within its board of
directors a so-called "Land and Improvement Company," which latter
company naturally had the first knowledge of the proposed locations of
the different towns along the advancing line. When the sale of town
lots was thrown open to the public, it was always discovered that the
Land and Improvement Company had already secured the best of the
property in what was to be the business portion of the town. In the
case of Ellisville, this inner corporation knew that there was to be
located here a railroad-division point, where ultimately there would be
car shops and a long pay roll of employees. Such a town was sure to
prosper much more than one depending solely upon agriculture for its
support, as