The village of Frankford Village was settled along the banks of Deer Creek in 1854 by Lewis Patchin, Bartlett Leathers, and Byron Woodworth. The town was platted in 1856 and it was declared the county seat. At one time it was a bustling frontier village that had three stores, a schoolhouse, a cemetery, three blacksmith and wagon shops, a gristmill, a chair and coffin factory, a shoe shop and the Patchin Hotel which also served as the post office. County court was held here and the county's records were stored in an upstairs room of Patchin's Hotel. After being passed over as the county's seat, its population slowly dwindled. When the Southern Minnesota Railroad was laid in 1870 it ran four miles south of the village and this development is what ultimately spelled doom for the once-thriving community. Rather than move the city to the railroad as the citizens of the Old Village of Le Roy did, the citizens simply relocated to other parts of the township and county. All that is left of the old village is a cemetery, which is still used, that can be found in the northeast quadrant of section 24 of Frankford Township.
