Clinton (or Ka-dah-wis-dag, "white field" in Seneca language) is a village in Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 1,942 at the 2010 census, declining to 1,684 in the 2020 census, 13% decline). It was named for George Clinton, the first Governor of New York.

Hamilton College and the former Kirkland College are in proximity to the village.

In describing the attractions of Hamilton College in 1833, it was stated to be "situated in one of the most healthful, delightful, and fertile parts of our country; surrounded by a numerous, increasing, virtuous, and enterprising population." In 1903, another school catalogue, besides "the unrivalled beauty of the surrounding scenery" and "the remarkable healthfulness of the vicinity," commented on "the high moral fiber of the community and its superior educational advantages", all of which made Clinton "a most highly favored place for mental and moral culture."

History

Part of Coxe's Patent, 6th division, Clinton began in March 1787 when Revolutionary War veterans from Plymouth, Connecticut, settled in Clinton. Pioneer Moses FooteFrom the Foote family, comprising the Genealogy and History of Nathaniel Foote of Wethersfield, Conn. and his descendants. of 2 primary source edition Volume 1. By Abram William Foote brought seven other families with him to the area. The new inhabitants found good soil, plentiful forests, and friendly ((friendly what?)) in southern Kirkland along with Oneida people, who passed through on trail. Named after New York's first governor, George Clinton, fourth Vice President of the United States and an uncle of Erie Canal builder and New York governor DeWitt Clinton, the village had a gristmill on the Oriskany Creek on College Street the first year and slowly developed as a farming and mercantile center.

In 1793, Presbyterian minister Rev. Samuel Kirkland founded Hamilton-Oneida Academy as a seminary to serve as part of his missionary work with the Oneida tribe. The seminary admitted both white and Oneida boys, although no Oneida boys lasted more than one year. Kirkland named it in honor of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, who was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy."Hamilton had championed a humane, enlightened policy toward the Indians...Through his interest in educating native Americans, Hamilton's name came to adorn a college." (Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, 2004, p. 337). The Academy became Hamilton College in 1812, making it the third oldest college in New York, after Columbia and Union, after it expanded to a four-year college curriculum.

Originally in the Town of Whitestown and then the Town of Paris, Clinton became part of the newly formed Town of Kirkland in 1827, and became an incorporated village in April 1843 with its own board of trustees, officials, employees, and status as a taxing jurisdiction.

According to Gordon's 1836 Gazetteer, Clinton had 50 dwellings, six stores, four taverns, two clothing works, a worsted factory, a grist mill, three churches (Universalist, Baptist, and Congregational), two academies, and two seminaries.

Elihu Root, Secretary of State under President McKinley and Secretary of War under presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, was born in a building on the Hamilton College campus, and is probably Clinton's most famous son.

Although never a factory town, Clinton did have the Clinton Knitting Company on the site of the Clinton House Apartments on Kirkland Avenue in the first half of the 20th century, as well as the Clinton Canning Company to process local vegetables in the late summer and fall.

The pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb began as the Clinton Pharmaceutical Company in 1887 on the second floor of 3-5 West Park Row and moved to Syracuse after three years. Both founders, William Bristol and John Myers, graduated from Hamilton College.

Attractions

The village centers around the Village Green, a park where many community events take place. Annual events on and around the Village Green include a summer farmers market, the Shopper's Stroll during the weekend after Thanksgiving, and the Clinton Art and Music festival in August. The Kirkland Art Center also hosts many activities throughout the year, including the KAC Road Race. The historic Clinton Cider Mill, a local favorite on Elm Street, has been producing cider since the early 1900s and is open seasonally from Labor Day through Thanksgiving.

The Clinton Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There is also an active Clinton Historical Society.

Education The Clinton Central School District covers Clinton and most of the surrounding Town of Kirkland. - Text list Its campus is near the center of Clinton.

Hamilton College is near the village, in the Town of Kirkland.

History of education

In the 19th century, Clinton was known as a "village of schools" and was sometimes called "Schooltown" and described as "an Academic village." The prosperity and reputation of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy had drawn public attention to Clinton as a place of education. It had numerous private schools, some day schools and some boarding, some secondary, of which there was no public school until 1891, and some primary. The largest building in town was a school (the Clinton Liberal Institute). A survey lists 37 schools, not counting Hamilton College, that operated in Clinton between 1790 (?) and 1915. A later list has 60, noting that "many...were in...the stately homes throughout the town; A subsequent list located 70. Some of these were small, one-room schools, often short-lived, and not much information survives on them.

Prior to the passage of the New York State Compulsory School Law of 1894, about half of the town's school-age children attended a school.

As put in 1878:

There was a public elementary or grammar school on East Park Row, which in 1802 was replaced by a brick building and in 1839 by a larger wood structure.

From 1793 to 1812 the Hamilton–Oneida Academy, forerunner of Hamilton College (1812), operated in what would later become Clinton. Its three-story building, torn down in 1830 or 1832, became the original building of the college.

Between the closing of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1812 and the opening of the Clinton Grammar School a "classical" (college preparatory) school operated at what is today (2023) the oldest house in Clinton, at 29 West Park Row.

In 1813 the Clinton Grammar School was founded; it was chartered in 1815. Under four different names, including Rural High School and Clinton Military Academy, it survived until 1892 and was primarily in two buildings at 86–88 College St., though in 1891 it consolidated with Kirkland Hall (see below) and met there. The school was considered a "classical school", meaning it prepared students for college. Sometimes it had a "Female Department" Elihu Root, Mark Hopkins, and Grover Cleveland all studied there.Link to picture of Clinton Grammar School It was torn down in 1900.

From 1814 to 1856 the Royce Academy was a boarding and day school for young ladies. Its last location was the former Royce mansion, at the intersection of Kirkland and Chenango Avenues.Link to picture of Royce Academy It closed upon the death of Miss Nancy Royce, an invalid who was the main instructor. "Two or three Indian girls, of the Stockbridge tribe, were at one time members of this school."

The Clinton Liberal Institute was a coeducational preparatory school founded by the Universalist Church, operating at the corner of Utica and Mulberry Streets from 1831 to 1878, and then in Fort Plain until destroyed by fire in 1900. An advertisement in 1841 reveals that it had a female department, and among the subjects taught were Greek, Hebrew, French, Astronomy, and Moral Philosophy. The Female Department was located at 12 Utica Street until 1851, then moved to 13 Chestnut Street, across from William Street. In this latter location it was also known as the White Seminary. After the Institute moved to Fort Plain, this building housed Kirkland Hall, a school for boys.

In 1833, Rev. Hiram H. Kellogg, a Presbyterian minister, abolitionist, Hamilton College graduate, and good friend of Gerrit Smith, opened in Clinton a Young Ladies' Domestic Seminary, also called the Clinton Female Seminary and the Clinton Seminary, a counterpart to some extent to the all-male Oneida Institute. Like the Institute, it admitted students of all skin colors: three Negro girls. Another gives the number of Negro students as seven. The first was Mary E. Bibb, who became a teacher. Another was Louisa Matilda Jacobs, daughter of author Harriet Jacobs. A native American, Electa Quinney, also studied there, as did Elizabeth Smith Miller, daughter of Gerrit Smith (1835–1836). A manual labor school, it was located at 23 Kellogg Street, on the corner of Mulberry. The students spent "a portion of each day" on "domestic avocations...to prepare them to run a household." This was interrupted in 1841; he became President of Knox College. Over 500 young ladies were educated in the eight years preceding his departure for Knox. The school, an inspiration for the seminary at Monticello, Illinois, the Mount Holyoke Seminary, and the Female Departments of Knox, Oberlin, and Elmira College, reopened less successfully from 1847 to 1850, after which it merged with the Clinton Grammar School. The original building survives.

In 1841, the Free Will Baptists purchased the building previously occupied by Kellogg's Seminary, and established the Clinton Seminary. The Clinton Seminary began publication of a paper called the Clinton Seminary Advocate. When the school enrollment outgrew the building's capacity it removed to the vacant Oneida Institute buildings and became the Whitestown Seminary. The former Kellogg's Seminary buildings were reopened as a private school by Pelatiah Rawson, previously of the Oneida Institute, but Rawson's health led it, within three years, to close (or rather, change ownership and name).

In 1844, the Clinton Grammar School, Clinton Liberal Institute, Clinton Seminary, and Hamilton Academy, all being under the supervision of the New York State Board of Regents which made them eligible, received state appropriations of $48.84, $274.01, $387.95, and $225.18 respectively. No other village in the area had as many recipient institutions, Together with the Oneida Institute, which received $86.82, other Oneida institutions made it the leading county. The Clinton Liberal Institute, along with other military subjects, offered fencing. In 1846, the Clinton Grammar School, Clinton Liberal Institute, and Hamilton Academy received state appropriations of $302.20, $369.35, and $271.67 respectively. In 1847, the Clinton Grammar School, Clinton Liberal Institute, and Clinton Academy received state appropriations ($262.89, $360.05, $45.73 respectively). The Clinton Grammar School received a state appropriation of $25 in 1849, and $105.36 in 1869. In 1873 the Clinton Grammar School and the Clinton Liberal Institute each received $149.23.

In 1849, an advertisement reveals that Miss Catherine Hopkins, for some years Principal of the Female Department of the Hamilton Academy, was running a Young Ladies' Seminary, where Latin, Greek, French, German, and Italian could be studied.