Souvenir Edition, The Williamstown Courier, Williamstown, Ky, May 30, 1901,
reprinted September 19, 1981 by the Grant County KY Historical Society.

ISAAC R. FRANKS, seventy-four years old, six feet two inches tall, as
straight as an arrow, in perfect health, the father of thirteen living
children, living in peace, happiness and plenty, that is the record of
Isaac R. Franks, and that record is sufficient to guarantee the best
there is to him in the declining years of a long and useful life.
     He is the son of John Franks and Elizabeth (Cowgill) Franks and was
born in Grant county, on the farm which he now owns, and in an old log
house which stood very near the spot where his imposing brick residence
now stands, April 7, 1827, and in his father's family there were eight
children, four boys and four girls, all of whom are dead, excepting the
subject of this sketch.  He was raised on his father's farm and helped
with his own hands to clear the wilderness, which in his early manhood
surrounded the Mount Zion country.  He went to the common school a few
months each year in the winter time and labored incessantly in the
summer and cropping season.  Very early in life, in fact before he was
twenty-one years old, or on the 17th day of December, 1848, he contracted
a marriage with Miss Mary Anna Conyers.  He was not twenty-one at this
time.  To this union thirteen children were born, seven boys and six
girls, all of whom are yet living, their names being Susan Jane, now
Mrs. William Clements, Miss Martha Ann, now Mrs. David Beach; Jesse
Irvin, a grocer of Covington, Ky.; James P., a prosperous farmer of near
Mount Zion; J. Newton, a large land owner and stock raiser in the
neighborhood of the old homestead; Nancy Elizabeth, now the wife of
David McBee, of Edgar, Neb.; Mary Eliza, now the wife of George Sleet;
Robert P. Franks, in business in Newport, Ky.; Emma Ines, the wife of
James G. Blackburn, of Dry Ridge; I. R. Franks, Jr., located in
Covington; B. S. Franks, a farmer of near Lawrenceville, this county;
Gracie T., the wife of James Collins, and Wallace W., now in the
commission business in Kansas City.
     His first wife died October 23, 1888, and some four years later,
or on the 1st day of March, 1891, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary
Ann Conyers, an excellent lady, who bore the same name as his first wife.
To this last union no children have been born.
     Mr. Franks has given all of his children a good common school
education and started them out in good shape to fight the battles of
life.  In politics he was a Whig before the war and then became a
Democrat, and he and all of his boys now vote that ticket.  He owns
265 acres of as good land as can be found in the county, has bank
stock and other personal property, and does not owe a cent in the world.
He is a member of the Mount Zion Baptist church, and has been for
almost a generation, and has always been liberal in school and church
work.  He is a deserving worthy citizen, and no doubt has many years
of usefulness before him.

Franks Cowgill Conyers Clements Beach McBee Sleet Blackburn
=
Kenton-KY Campbell-KY MO NE KS

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/grant/franks.ir.txt