Clinton County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

. As of 2020, the population was 33,190. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Frankfort.

History

Clinton County officially came into existence on March 1, 1830, and was named in honor of

DeWitt Clinton DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769February 11, 1828) was an American politician and Naturalism (philosophy), naturalist. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator, as the mayor of New York City, and as the sixth governor of New York. ...

, the sixth

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 ...

State and architect of the

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 navigability, navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, ...

, which opened up the Upper Midwest to settlement. The act forming the county was approved by the Indiana General Assembly on January 29, 1830, and created Clinton from the eastern parts of neighboring Tippecanoe County. Lieutenant General James F. Record was born and raised in Clinton County; Gen Record was awarded 3x Distinguished Service Crosses for his gallantry during the Vietnam War.

Geography

According to the 2010 census, the county has a total area of , of which (or 99.96%) is land and (or 0.04%) is water.

Adjacent counties

* Carroll County (north) * Howard County (northeast) * Tipton County (east) * Hamilton County (southeast) * Boone County (south) * Montgomery County (southwest) * Tippecanoe County (west)

Cities and towns

Unincorporated towns

Extinct towns

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

* Martinsville * Prairieville

Townships

Major highways

* Interstate 65 * U.S. Route 52 *

U.S. Route 421 U.S. Route 421 (also U.S. Highway 421, US 421) is a diagonal northwest–southeast United States Numbered Highway System, United States Numbered Highway in the states of North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana. The highwa ...

* Indiana State Road 26 * Indiana State Road 28 * Indiana State Road 29 * Indiana State Road 38 * Indiana State Road 39 *

Indiana State Road 75 State Road 75, the highest two-digit route in the U.S. state of Indiana, consists of two discontinuous north–south segments. Route description Southern section The southern section is about long. It begins at U.S. Route 40 at the ...

Airport

Clinton County is served by the Frankfort Municipal Airport.

Railroads

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of track, it is the lead ...

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

Climate and weather

In recent years, average temperatures in Frankfort have ranged from a low of in January to a high of in July, although a record low of was recorded in December 1983 and a record high of was recorded in July 1980. Average monthly precipitation ranged from in February to in June.

Government

The county government is a constitutional body, and is granted specific powers by the Constitution of Indiana, and by the Indiana Code. County Council: The county council is the legislative branch of the county government and controls all the spending and revenue collection in the county. Representatives are elected from county districts. The council members serve four-year terms. They are responsible for setting salaries, the annual budget, and special spending. The council also has limited authority to impose local taxes, in the form of an income and property tax that is subject to state level approval, excise taxes, and service taxes. Board of Commissioners: The executive body of the county is made of a board of commissioners. The commissioners are elected county-wide, in staggered terms, and each serves a four-year term. One of the commissioners, typically the most senior, serves as president. The commissioners are charged with executing the acts legislated by the council, collecting revenue, and managing the day-to-day functions of the county government. Court: The county maintains a

small claims court Small-claims courts have limited jurisdiction to hear civil cases between private litigants. Courts authorized to try small claims may also have other judicial functions, and go by different names in different jurisdictions. For example, it ma ...

that can handle some civil cases. The judge on the court is elected to a term of four years and must be a member of the Indiana Bar Association. The judge is assisted by a constable who is also elected to a four-year term. In some cases, court decisions can be appealed to the state-level

circuit court Circuit courts are court systems in several common law jurisdictions. It may refer to: * Courts that literally sit 'on circuit', i.e., judges move around a region or country to different towns or cities where they will hear cases; * Courts that s ...

. County Officials: The county has several other elected offices, including

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death. The official may also investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...

auditor An auditor is a person or a firm appointed by a company to execute an audit.Practical Auditing, Kul Narsingh Shrestha, 2012, Nabin Prakashan, Nepal To act as an auditor, a person should be certified by the regulatory authority of accounting an ...

treasurer A treasurer is a person responsible for the financial operations of a government, business, or other organization. Government The treasury of a country is the department responsible for the country's economy, finance and revenue. The treasure ...

, recorder,

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. These points are usually on the ...

, and circuit

court clerk A court clerk (British English: clerk to the court or clerk of the court ; American English: clerk of the court or clerk of court ) is an officer of the court whose responsibilities include maintaining records of a court and administering oaths ...

. Each of these elected officers serves a term of four years and oversees a different part of county government. Members elected to county government positions are required to declare a

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

affiliation and to be residents of the county. Clinton County is part of Indiana's 4th congressional district; Indiana Senate districts 7 and 23; and

Indiana House of Representatives The Indiana House of Representatives is the lower house of the Indiana General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Indiana. The House is composed of 100 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. House mem ...

district 38.

Demographics

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 33,224 people, 12,105 households, and 8,754 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 13,321 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 91.0% white, 0.4% black or African American, 0.2% Asian, 0.2% American Indian, 6.8% from other races, and 1.3% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 13.2% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 22.4% were German, 11.1% were American, 10.3% were Irish, and 9.6% were English. Of the 12,105 households, 36.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.5% were married couples living together, 11.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 27.7% were non-families, and 23.1% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.68 and the average family size was 3.13. The median age was 37.5 years. The median income for a household in the county was $47,697 and the median income for a family was $57,445. Males had a median income of $42,009 versus $29,086 for females. The per capita income for the county was $21,131. About 7.5% of families and 11.7% 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 17.0% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over.

2020 census

References

External links

Clinton County Chamber of Commerce

Clinton County Economic Development
{{authority control Indiana counties 1830 establishments in Indiana Populated places established in 1830