Hamilton, Clinton County, Indiana
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Hamilton is an
unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in Madison Township,
Clinton County Clinton County may refer to: *Counties named for George Clinton, first and third Governor of New York, and later the fourth Vice President of the United States: **Clinton County, New York ** Clinton County, Ohio *Counties named for DeWitt Clinton, ...
,
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 ...
. The town is named for
Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...
.


History

The western portion of the land on which Hamilton stands was settled by Jacob Stetler in late 1829 or 1830, and the eastern part by John Gallinger in 1831, the two being separated by what is now Hamilton Road (near its intersection with what would become State Road 38). According to a 1913 history of Clinton County, "tradition has it that these two men met under the shade of a tree, near where the two highways cross, on a Sunday and agreed to join in layout out the town plat, which agreement was thereafter carried to execution..." The
plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...
, surveyed March 21, 1839 and recorded April 19, 1839, included 36 lots each on the east and west sides of the road; additional lots were added June 30, 1842. The first house in Hamilton was built by John Jamison, a
saddle A saddle is a supportive structure for a rider of an animal, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is equestrian. However, specialized saddles have been created for oxen, camels and other animals. It is not know ...
r, who also ran a small shop. Later stores were operated by Waldron Drew, Mr. Frankenfield, and many others. Harvey Blacklidge operated the first blacksmith shop and was succeeded by Samuel Hammel who occupied the position of village blacksmith for many years. One of the most prominent people in Mulberry's early history was the village physician Dr. John Connor, "a very large, fleshy man, weighing perhaps three hundred pounds, though not tall. Seated on his two-wheeled cart and drawn by a fine sorrel horse, he was a familiar figure to all of the people living within several miles of the village." Other prominent early citizens included cobbler Alfred Cornelison, who being disabled and unable to walk drove a dog team, James McDavis, Joseph Miller, Hamilton Yundt, Joseph Rex, Jonas Hammel, Jesse Sweet, Joseph Kauffman and William Sense. Hamilton reached a population of more than a hundred and was an active business center for the community, but it was eclipsed by nearby Mulberry which had the only railroad station in the township, and gradually dwindled during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It now consists of about a dozen homes.


References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Clinton County, Indiana Unincorporated communities in Indiana