Clinton (or ''Ka-dah-wis-dag'', "white field" in
Seneca language
Seneca (; in Seneca, or ) is the language of the Seneca people, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League; it is an Iroquoian language, spoken at the time of contact in the western portion of New York. While the name ''Seneca'', attested as ...
) is a
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...
in
Oneida County, New York
Oneida County is a county in the state of New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 232,125. The county seat is Utica. The name is in honor of the Oneida, one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois League or ''Haudenos ...
, United States. The population was 1,942 at the 2010 census. It was named for
George Clinton, the first
Governor of New York
The governor of New York is the head of government of the U.S. state of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor h ...
.
The Village of Clinton, site of
Hamilton College, is within the
Town of Kirkland. The village was known as the "village of schools" due to the large number of private schools operating in the village during the 19th century.
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 Foote brought seven other families with him to the area. The new inhabitants found good soil, plentiful forests, and friendly
Brothertown Indians in southern Kirkland along with
Oneida people
The Oneida people ( autonym: Onʌyoteˀa·ká·, Onyota'a:ka, ''the People of the Upright Stone, or standing stone'', ''Thwahrù·nęʼ'' in Tuscarora) are a Native American tribe and First Nations band. They are one of the five founding ...
, who passed through on trails.
Named after New York's first governor, George Clinton, an uncle of
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing ...
builder and governor
DeWitt Clinton
DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769February 11, 1828) was an American politician and naturalist. He served as a United States senator, as the mayor of New York City, and as the seventh governor of New York. In this last capacity, he was largely re ...
, 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
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
work with the
Oneida tribe. The seminary admitted both white and Oneida boys. Kirkland named it in honor of
Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charle ...
, who was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy. The Academy became Hamilton College in 1812, making it the third oldest college in New York after
Columbia
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...
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.
Elihu Root
Elihu Root (; February 15, 1845February 7, 1937) was an American lawyer, Republican politician, and statesman who served as Secretary of State and Secretary of War in the early twentieth century. He also served as United States Senator from ...
,
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 over the current CVS drug store at 3-5 West Park Row and moved to
Syracuse
Syracuse may refer to:
Places Italy
* Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa''
* Province of Syracuse
United States
*Syracuse, New York
**East Syracuse, New York
** North Syracuse, New York
* Syracuse, Indiana
*Syracuse, Kansas
*Syracuse, M ...
after three years. Both founders,
William Bristol and
John Myers, graduated from
Hamilton College.
Notable people
*
Natalie Babbitt
Natalie Zane Babbitt (née Moore; July 28, 1932 – October 31, 2016) was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. Her 1975 novel ''Tuck Everlasting'' was adapted into two feature films and a Broadway musical. She received the ...
, award-winning children's author
*
Clara Barton
Clarissa Harlowe Barton (December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912) was an American nurse who founded the American Red Cross. She was a hospital nurse in the American Civil War, a teacher, and a patent clerk. Since nursing education was not then very ...
, founder of
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the des ...
.
*
Frederick Bee
Frederick Alonzo Bee (傅列秘) was an early opponent of Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States. He was a California Gold Rush pioneer, miner, merchant, manager of the Pony Express, builder of the telegraph over the Sierras, developer of Saus ...
, builder of telegraph over
Sierra Nevada
The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primar ...
mountains and Consul of the Chinese Consulate in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
*
Susan Bennett
Susan Alice Bennett (née Cameron, born July 31, 1949) is an American voice actress and a former backup singer for Roy Orbison and Burt Bacharach. She is best known as the female American voice of Apple's Siri personal assistant, since the s ...
, American voice-over artist best known for being the female American voice of Apple's "Siri"
*
William McLaren Bristol
William McLaren Bristol (28July 18601935) was one of the two co-founders of Bristol-Myers, now part of Bristol-Myers Squibb. Myers and Bristol founded the company that would evolve into an international pharmaceutical giant in Bristol's birthpla ...
, co-founder of Bristol-Meyers Squibb.
*
Terry Brooks
Terence Dean Brooks (born January 8, 1944) is an American writer of fantasy fiction. He writes mainly epic fantasy, and has also written two film novelizations. He has written 23 ''New York Times'' bestsellers during his writing career, and ha ...
, fantasy author, graduated from Hamilton College
*
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
, brief childhood resident.
*
Flick Colby
Felicity Isabelle "Flick" Colby (March 23, 1946 – May 26, 2011) was an American dancer and choreographer best known for being a founding member and the choreographer of the United Kingdom dance troupe Pan's People, which appeared on the BB ...
, choreographer.
*
Edward P. Felt, passenger
United Flight 93
United Airlines Flight 93 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight that was hijacked by four al-Qaeda attackers aboard the plane on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The plane eventually crashed in So ...
, died September 11, 2001.
*
Ulysses S. Grant III, United States Army officer and planner, grandson of
President Ulysses S. Grant.
*
Alex Haley
Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book '' Roots: The Saga of an American Family.'' ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and ...
, American writer.
*
George Hastings, US Congressman, 1853-1857
*
Samuel Kirkland, a missionary among the
Oneida
Oneida may refer to:
Native American/First Nations
* Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy
* Oneida language
* Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York
* Oneida ...
, obtained a charter for Hamilton College in 1812.
*
Mary Lyon
Mary Mason Lyon (; February 28, 1797 – March 5, 1849) was an American pioneer in women's education. She established the Wheaton Female Seminary in Norton, Massachusetts, (now Wheaton College) in 1834. She then established Mount Holyoke Femal ...
, pioneer of women's education.
*
Sarah J. Maas
Sarah Janet Maas (born March 5, 1986) is an American fantasy author known for her fantasy series ''Throne of Glass'' and ''A Court of Thorns and Roses''. As of 2022, she has sold over twelve million copies of her books and her work has been tr ...
, author of Throne of Glass series of fantasy novels, graduated from Hamilton College.
*
John Ripley Myers
John Ripley Myers (October 8, 1864 – December 22, 1899) was a co-founder (along with William McLaren Bristol) of the pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers.
Life
John Ripley Myers was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on October 8, 1864. His father was ...
, co-founder of Bristol-Meyers Squibb.
*
Nick Palmieri
Nicholas Palmieri (born July 12, 1989) is an American former professional ice hockey player. He was selected by the New Jersey Devils in the third-round of the 2007 NHL Draft.
Playing career
As a youth, Palmieri played in the 2002 Quebec Inter ...
, professional ice hockey player, was born in Clinton.
*
Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters, Danish-born astronomer; working at Litchfield Observatory, Hamilton College, he discovered 48 asteroids.
*
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
, poet and intellectual; attended Hamilton College
*
Elihu Root
Elihu Root (; February 15, 1845February 7, 1937) was an American lawyer, Republican politician, and statesman who served as Secretary of State and Secretary of War in the early twentieth century. He also served as United States Senator from ...
, born in Clinton and attended Hamilton College.
*
Eli Parsons Royce, born in this town and was the founder of
Escanaba, Michigan.
*
B. F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.
C ...
, psychologist and social philosopher, graduated from Hamilton College.
*
Gerrit Smith, Congressman 1853-1854, three times presidential candidate, was valedictorian of the first graduating class at Hamilton College.
*
Leland Stanford
Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824June 21, 1893) was an American industrialist and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 8th governor of California from 1862 to 1863 and represented California in the United States Sen ...
, Governor and Senator of California, founder of
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
, studied in Clinton.
*
De Wayne Stebbins, Wisconsin State Senator from 1895 to 1903, was born in Clinton.
*
Hildegarde Swift, award-winning children's author, was born in Clinton.
*
Joe Nolan, ice hockey defenceman for the Clinton Comets in the 1950s who gained fame with the role of "Clarence 'Screaming Buffalo' Swamptown" in the movie ''
Slap Shot
''Slap Shot'' is a 1977 American sports film directed by George Roy Hill, written by Nancy Dowd and starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean. It depicts a minor league ice hockey team that resorts to violent play to gain popularity in a decli ...
''.
Attractions
The
Clinton High School, Middle School, and Elementary School are located towards the center of the village, as are the business offices for the district.
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
Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and the Republic of Ireland. The UK has the world's highest per capita consumption, ...
since the early 1900s and is open seasonally from Labor Day through Thanksgiving.
The
Clinton Arena was home to the
Clinton Comets
The Clinton Comets were an American ice hockey team in Clinton, New York.
Founded in 1927–28 as the Clinton Hockey Club and nicknamed the Comets in 1949, the team played primarily at the Clinton Arena from 1949 until 1973. The team was orig ...
of the
Eastern Hockey League
The Eastern Hockey League was a minor professional United States ice hockey league.
Eastern Amateur Hockey League (1933–1953)
The league was founded in 1933 as the Eastern Amateur Hockey League (EAHL). The league was founded by Tommy Lockhart, ...
, which ended play at the arena in 1973. Portions of the movie ''
Slap Shot
''Slap Shot'' is a 1977 American sports film directed by George Roy Hill, written by Nancy Dowd and starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean. It depicts a minor league ice hockey team that resorts to violent play to gain popularity in a decli ...
'' were filmed at the famed Clinton Arena. The Clinton High School hockey program is widely regarded as one of the best in New York State, despite the small size of the school. The team won back-to-back state championships twice, in 1994-1995 and 1995–1996 and again in 2004-2005 and 2005–2006.
In 2005 and 2006, Clinton's Cross Country team won back-to-back scholar athlete state championships.
In 1984, Clinton's football team went to the
Carrier Dome
The JMA Wireless Dome, originally the Carrier Dome (1980–2022) and colloquially called "The Dome," or more recently "The JMA Dome," is a domed sports stadium in Syracuse, New York. Located on the campus of Syracuse University in the Universit ...
beating V.V.S. in the semi-final, 3-0 and became Section 3 Class B Co-Champion along with Bishop Grimes since the game ended in a tie, 0-0.
Clinton's boys' soccer program won their first Section III title in 2006, and a second in 2011, for the first time advancing to the state semi-finals, as well as an undefeated regular season. It is also noted that they are among the top contenders for the Center-State Conference Championship every year.
Clinton Track and Field is also well known in the area.
Geography
Clinton is located at (43.048852, -75.380250).
According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of th ...
, the village has a total area of , all land.
The village is east of the
Oriskany Creek.
Demographics
As of the
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...
of 2000, there were 1,952 people, 922 households, and 488 families residing in the village. The
population density
Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopu ...
was 3,349.4 people per square mile (1,299.4/km
2). There were 965 housing units at an average density of 1,655.8 per square mile (642.4/km
2). The racial makeup of the village was 98.05%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...
, 0.61%
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, 0.72%
Asian, 0.26% from
other races, and 0.36% from two or more races.
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...
or
Latino of any race were 1.33% of the population.
There were 922 households, out of which 25.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.8% were
married couples
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
living together, 6.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 47.0% were non-families. 41.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 20.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.11 and the average family size was 2.94.
In the village, the population was spread out, with 22.7% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 23.0% from 25 to 44, 27.4% from 45 to 64, and 19.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.8 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $41,958, and the median income for a family was $66,685. Males had a median income of $45,750 versus $31,369 for females. The
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population.
Per capita i ...
for the village was $26,165. About 3.1% of families and 9.7% of the population were below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 4.7% of those under age 18 and 12.2% of those age 65 or over.
References
External links
Village of Clinton. NYClinton Historical SocietyClinton Central School District
{{authority control
Villages in New York (state)
Utica–Rome metropolitan area
Populated places established in 1787
Villages in Oneida County, New York