As early as 1852, Frankville was little more than a trading center with just one resident, Frank Teabout. The town's prospects were promising as a new State road was constructed to serve the area's burgeoning population of immigrants seeking to settle in Northwestern Iowa and Southern Minnesota. It was an ideal location for a new store, and the peddler who came to town with a business sense negotiated a deal with Mr. Teabout and gained the rights to stock his goods in Frankville. This peddler was Mr. Currier, who would become the first mayor of Frankville City.
The town's population was quite spread out. Twenty-nine percent were under 18, thirty-one percent were between 18 and 24, and twenty-four percent were between forty-five and sixty-four. Twenty-four percent of the population was over 65 years old, and a quarter of all households had one person. Of the four-hundred-and-twenty-four percent of the residents were male and twenty-five percent were female. Males outnumbered females by one hundred, with a ratio of two males for every one female.
Most people in the 36538 ZIP code drive to work or attend school. A very low percentage of people work from home. While this is lower than average for most areas of the country, it does indicate a higher than average amount of people who commute over forty-five minutes to their jobs. This indicates that there are many people living in Frankville City who are not connected to the Internet. The majority of residents of the 36538 ZIP code are African Americans. Only one person in every fifty-seven of them has access to public transportation.