P.O. Box 546
132 Kansas
Frankfort, Illinois
(815) 469-6541
Museum hours: Sundays 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Also open by appointment
Closed January and February
Frankfort Retrospective By Judy Herder
The pioneers crossing this area first were mostly English and Scottish people--mostly folks from the New England colonies moving west. The first settler in these parts was a man named William Rice. He had made a prospecting tour through here in 1928 and made a permanent settlement here a few years later.
The local Native Americans were not pleased with their new neighbors. Chief Black Hawk and his warriors threatened the Rice family and the other families in the area. They abandoned their homes for safer territory until their return in 1834.
In 1848 the first village was laid out here by Charles Clayes and M. C. Farewell. They called that first town here Chelsea after the English town of their homeland. Chelsea was just northwest of present day Frankfort, about a mile north of route 30 and west of route 45. But times changed with the coming of the railroad in 1855. The pioneer village of Chelsea was abandoned when the Joliet and Northern Indiana Railroad was established south of Chelsea.
Back in the 1840’s, the German settlers arrived in the area. Among them was a man named Frederick Cappel. He was the one responsible for the town’s name—Frankfort after his native city of Frankfurt-Am-Main, Germany. Sherman Bowen and Nelson Elwood were officers of the new railroad and landowners. Today there are streets in the community named after these founders.
Bowen was the fortunate owner of the 89 acres surrounding the new Frankfort Station. The area was one of the most desirable locations around for settlement. It was the highest point between Chicago and the Mississippi river. The area was rolling prairie with heavily timbered sections, well watered and drained. The Sauk Trail and the Railroad provided the necessary transportation links.
Bowen laid out a plat for the commercial and residential development of the acreage around the Frankfort Station in 1855. The village thrived and became incorporated in 1879.
The Joliet and Northern Indiana Railroad became the Michigan Central Railroad (where the Plank Trail is today) and twice daily the milk and mail train would roll in to Frankfort. The conductor usually knew when they’d have a passenger and would hold the train for as long as 15 minutes waiting. Times were slower then.
The Folkers Hotel was owned and operated for many years by Johnson Folkers and later by his three sons. The brick building next to the hotel housed a meat market and bank. The upstairs has been used for a telephone exchange office and the offices of several dentists.
Folkers Hotel
Site of today's Trolley Barn
This site, where the Trolley Barn is now located, formerly served as the old streetcar barn. It was purchased by Arthur Bauch and was established as a garage where automobiles and farm implements were sold and repaired.It later became Cooper-Show Ford.
The Frankfort Historical Society Museum stands where, at one time, the town livery stable was operated by the Folkers family.It was an old wooden frame structure that housed 26 horses, and rented wagons, harnesses and surreys.A fire consumed the building in 1910 and it was rebuilt in red brick. The building was then rented/owned by car dealerswho, in earlier years sold Fords and Willis- Overlands--in later years, it was a Chevrolet agency.
Frank Kohlhagen and Employees (1914).The first general store was remodeled several times and belonged to N. A., Carpenter, Benedict Baumgartner, John Kohlhagen, and son, Frank Kohlhagen.It was once known as McArthur’s Hatchery, then a grocery store rented by Leroy Mager and Henry Mark and later the Spot-Lite Grocery.At the present, it is the site of Francesca’s Fortunato.
