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464 ONEIDA COUNTY.
of the s. e. part. The soil is of good quality and well adapted to grain and grass. Floyd CJor»
ners (Floyd p. o.) contains a church and 20 houses. The first settlement commenced about 1790,
by Capt. Benjamin Pike.1 There are 4 churches in town; Cong., Welsh Meth., Union,2 and R. C.
KIRKLAID3 —was formed from Paris, April 13, 1827. Marshall was taken off in 1829, a
part was annexed to New Hartford in 1834, and a part of Paris was annexed in 1839. It lies in
the interior, s. of the center of the co. Its surface is a hilly upland, divided into two general
ridges by the valley of Oriskany Creek. The hills are 200 to 500 ft. high, and the declivities are
generally steep. Oriskany Creek flows n. e. through near the center. The soil is a rich, calcareous
loam. Near Clinton Tillage are quarries of good building stone. Iron ore is found; and several
thousand tons are annually shipped by the Chenango Canal, to Constantia, Taberg, and Penn. Great
attention is paid to fruit growing, and this town excels every other town in the co. in the amount
of fruit raised. The town derives its greatest interest from its extensive educational institutions,
which entitle it to the appellation of the Literary Emporium of Oneida co. Clinton (p. v.) was
incorp. April 12, 1843, Hamilton College4 is located upon a hill overlooking the Oriskany Yalley.
Its buildings consist of Dexter Hall, or North College; Kirkland Hall, or Middle College; Hamil¬
ton Hall, or South College; a chapel, laboratory, and an observatory. The course of study embraces
a collegiate and a law department. The college libraries contain about 10,000 volumes, and the
cabinet of natural history contains about as many specimens. The village also contains 5 churches,
2 newspaper offices, the Clinton Liberal Institute,5 a grammar, a boarding, and a high school, and a
few manufactories. Pop. 1,174. Manchester, (Kirkland p. o.,) a manufacturing village,6 in
the n. part, contains 30 houses. Franklin, near the center, contains the Franklin Iron Works7
and 35 houses. Clarks Mills,8 in the n. comer, is a manufacturing village, and contains a
cotton factory, grist and saw mill, and 40 houses. The first settlement commenced in 1787, by 8
families.9 Religious services were first held in the cabin of Capt. Foot.10
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causes have embarrassed the finances of the college; but
efforts are about being made to relieve it from debt. The sum
of $50,000 was granted by the State, June 19, 1812, to aid in
founding the college. Wm. H. Maynard, of Utica, in 1832 gave
$20,000 to endow a professorship of law; and' S. Newton Dexter,
of Whitesboro, in 1836 gave bis personal obligations for $15,000
to endow a professorship of the Greek and Latin languages. The
observatory was built in 1854, at a cost of $5,000 besides the instru¬
ments, which have cost more than twice that sum.
6 The Clinton Liberal Institute was founded in 1832; it is
under the patronage of the Universalist denomination, and has
a male and a female department. The building for the former
is of stone, 96 by 52 feet, 4 stories above the basement, and hag
accommodations for 100 students. The female department is an
elegant structure, 144 by 60 ft., 2 stories high above the base¬
ment, and has an average attendance of 50 pupils. A small
monthly paper, named the. “ Leaf Bud,” “ Summer Leaves,”
“Ai^jpmn Leaves,” or “ Wintergreen,” according to the season,
is published at this institution. Home Cottage Seminary is a
private institution, established in 1854 as a ladies’ seminary, by
Miss L. M. Barker. The edifice is 60 by 112 ft,, and cost—in¬
cluding 8 acres of land—$20,000. It has been united with another
ladies’ school under Miss A. Chipman, and is very prosperous.
An issue styled the “ Home Cottage Quarterly” is published by
the pupils. This seminary forms the female department of the
grammar school. The Clinton High School, for males only, was
established May, 1858, by Rev. B. W. Dwight and D. A. Holbrook.
It is located i mi. from the village, cost $18,000, and has accom¬
modations for 80 students.
6 The Manchester Manufacturing Co., incorp. in 1815, gave
employment to 100 hands, and manufactured cotton cloths to
the amount of $100,000 per year until Aug. 19, 1857, when it
was burned.
1 The Franklin Iron Works manufactures 4,000 tons of pig
iron annually, from ore obtained in the immediate vicinity. It
gives employment to 100 men, and turns out work to the
amount of $100,000 annually.
8 Clark’s Mills manufacture brown sheeting, and are furnished
with 128 looms. The proprietors also have a manufactory of
cotton cord, rope, and batting, and a gristmill and sawmill.
9 Moses Foot, bis three sons Bronson, Luther, and Ira, and his
son-in-law, Barnabas Pond, were of this number. Levi Shear¬
man, Solomon Ilovey, Ludin Blodget, Timothy Tuttle, Samuel
Hubbard, Randall Lewis, Cordial Storrs, John Bullen, and Capt.
Cassey were early settlers. Mrs. S. Hovey was the first white
woman who moved into town. The first child born was Clinton
Foot;. the first marriage was that of Roger Leveret and Elizabeth
Cheseborough; and the first death was that of Mrs. Maria
Tuttle. Skenandoah, an Oneida chief, was interred here, March
11, 1816, aged 110 years. Capt. Cassey built the first gristmill,
in 1787, and a sawmill the next year. The village was early
named from Gov. Clinton; and the vicinity was known by the
Indians as Ka-de-wis-day.
10 There are 6 churches; 2 Cong., Meth., Bap., R. C., and Union. |
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Among the early settlers were Stephen Moulton, Wm. and
Nathaniel Allen, James Chase, Elisha Lake, Howard, Hope
Smith, David Bryan, Samuel Denison, James Bartlett, Put¬
ney, Jarvis Pike, Capt. Nathan Townsend, and Thomas Baeon—
mostly from Conn. The first death was that of —— Poster; the
second, that of Nathan Thompson, who was killed by a falling tree.
2
The plan of ownership of the union church is peculiar. The
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seats are owned and transferred by purchase, and the owners
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meet on the first Monday in each year and vote what denomina¬
tion shall occupy the house the ensuing year.
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8 Named from the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, an early missionary
among the Oneida Indians, who settled in the county in 1792.
He was the principal founder of an academy since merged in
Hamilton College. He died in 1808; and a monument was erected
to his memory by the Northern Missionary Society.
6
* Hamilton Oneida Academy was incorp. by the Regents, Jan.
31,1793, mainly through the exertions of the Rev. Samuel Kirk¬
land. In 1794 a commodious building was erected, the corner
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stone of which was laid with much ceremony by Baron Steuben.
The school was opened the same year under the Rev. John Niles,
whose successors were Rev. Robert Porter, Seth Norton, and
Rev. James Robbins. The success of this academy was highly
gratifying to its friends; and the rapid development of Central
New York suggested the necessity of more ample facilities for
instruction and an extension of its course of study. Clinton and
Fairfield became active competitors for the honors of a college,
and charters of similar character and conditions were granted
to each, under the names of Hamilton and Clinton Colleges.
respectively. By a compromise between the friends of the rival
locations, the latter institution was never organized. Clinton
went on with its literary college, and employed the most active
person in the Fairfield enterprise as its agent; while Fairfield
organized a medical college. Hamilton College was chartered
May 26,1812, and went into operation soon after, under the
presidency of the Rev. Azel Backus. His successors have been
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Henry Davis, in 1817; Sereno E. Dwight, in 1833; Joseph Penny,
in 1835; Simeou North, -in 1839; and Samuel Ware Fisher, in
1858. The college is chiefly pnder the influence of the New
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School Presbyterian and Congregational Churches. From 1819
to 1832, dissensions between the Trustees and President seriously
retarded the prosperity of the institution; and during the same
period insubordination among the students was of frequent
occurrence. From 1838 to 1846 the college received $3,000
annually from the State; but the present Constitution cut it off
from the receipt of a balance previously appropriated, and the
grant has not been since continued. The Trustees many years
since adopted the custom of admitting students unable to pay
tuition fees; and, from incautious extension, this usage became
an abuse that showed itself upon the treasurer’s books. The
receipts from tuition became only a quarter as great as pre¬
viously, while the catalogue indicated by its numbers an in¬
creasing prosperity. It was found more difficult to abandon
tliis practice than it had been to adopt it; and it is still continued
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to as great an extent as the means of the institution will justify.
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