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 of
Kentucky
Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...
in the
Pennyrile Region along the southern border with
Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
. As of the
2020 United States census, the population was 9,253. Its
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
Albany.
The county was formed in 1835 and named for
DeWitt Clinton, the seventh
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 ...
. It is a prohibition or
dry county.
History
Clinton County was formed on February 20, 1835, from portions of Cumberland and Wayne counties. It was named for
DeWitt Clinton,
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 ...
and driving force behind 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, ...
.
Courthouse fires in 1864 (
Confederate guerrillas) and 1980 resulted in the destruction of county records, but in the latter case, local volunteers' assistance successfully preserved almost all records.
Geography
According to the
U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (4.0%) is water.
Adjacent counties
*
Russell County (north)
*
Wayne County (east/EST border)
*
Pickett County,
Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
(south)
*
Clay County,
Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
(southwest)
*
Cumberland County (west)
Demographics
As of the
census
A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, there were 9,634 people, 4,086 households, and 2,811 families residing in the county. The
population density
Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), 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 geog ...
was . There were 4,888 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 99.09%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.10%
Black
Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
or
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.25%
Native American, 0.04%
Asian, 0.11%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 0.08% from
other races, and 0.32% from two or more races. 1.22% of the population were
Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or
Latino of any race.
There were 4,086 households, out of which 29.80% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.50% were
married couples living together, 9.70% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.20% were non-families. 28.40% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 2.85.
In the county, the population was spread out, with 22.70% under the age of 18, 8.60% from 18 to 24, 27.70% from 25 to 44, 26.00% from 45 to 64, and 15.00% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 92.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.50 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $19,563, and the median income for a family was $25,919. Males had a median income of $21,193 versus $16,194 for females. The
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the county was $13,286. About 20.20% of families and 25.80% 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 31.80% of those under age 18 and 29.90% of those age 65 or over.
Communities
City
*
Albany (county seat)
Unincorporated communities
*
Aaron
According to the Old Testament of the Bible, Aaron ( or ) was an Israelite prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of Moses. Information about Aaron comes exclusively from religious texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament ...
*
Abstons Corner
*
Alpha
Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...
*
Browns Crossroads
*
Bug
*
Cannons Mill
*
Cartwright
*
Cedar Knob
*
Churntop
*
Cumberland City
*
Decide
*
Dicken
*
Fairland
*
Five Springs
*
Highway
A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...
*
Hobart
Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...
*
Hogback
*
Huntersville
*
Ida
*
Jones Mill
*
Lettered Oak
*
Marlow
*
Narvel
*
Nora
*
Pikeview
*
Rolan
*
Savage
*
Seventy Six
*
Shipley
*
Snow
Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes.
It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...
*
Sparta
Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...
*
Static‡
*
Upchurch
*
Wago
*
Watauga
*
Willis Creek
*
Wolf River Dock
Politics
Clinton County, like other counties in South Central and Southeastern Kentucky, has voted overwhelmingly Republican in presidential elections ever since
Reconstruction ended. Counties in the
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...
were less conducive to large-scale
plantation
Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...
farming that utilized
slave labor and thus were more resistant to
secession
Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...
from the
Union. Clinton County, being located on the western foothills of the
Cumberland Plateau, reflected this with its voting patterns, having voted Republican even through the several party
realignments since Reconstruction. Relative to population, Clinton County was a leader in providing soldiers for the
Union Army during the
U.S. Civil War, seeing 12.54% of its white population volunteer for Union service, exceeded only by the now-similarly Republican
Owsley,
Estill and
Clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
counties.
[Copeland, James E.; ‘Where Were the Kentucky Unionists and Secessionists’; ''The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society'', volume 71, no. 4 (October 1973), pp. 344–363]
The last Democrat to carry Clinton County was
Horatio Seymour in 1868 – when party realignment was just beginning – and the last Democrat to pass so much as 30 percent of the county's vote was
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...
in 1888. Nor has any Republican in this time span – even
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...
during the divided 1912 election – fallen short of 60 percent.
Jackson County is the only other county in the United States that has seen no Democrat reach 30 percent since the beginning of the 1890s, and apart from these two only
Hooker County, Nebraska has seen no Democrat reach 30 percent since 1940.
Elected officials
See also
*
DeWitt Clinton
*
Preston Leslie
Preston Hopkins Leslie (March 8, 1819 – February 7, 1907) was the List of Governors of Kentucky, 26th Governor of Kentucky from 1871 to 1875, and Governors of Montana Territory, territorial governor of Montana from 1887 to 1889. He ascended to ...
*
Champ Ferguson
*
Garlin Murl Conner
*
Dry counties
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Clinton County, Kentucky
References
{{authority control
1835 establishments in Kentucky
Populated places established in 1835
Kentucky counties