Named for the wife of the chief survey engineer {E. H. McHenry] of the Northern Pacific RR a spaced stop on the railroad. Francis is a farming community in eastern Pacific County in an area commonly known as Elk Prarie. The town is near the headwaters of the Willapa River.

With the arival of the railroad, the small community [maximum population about 200] 'boomed'. About that time it had three stores, three saloons [one with hotel] and six lumber mills.