- The act of Territorial Legislature
organizing Clinton was approved Feb. 17, 1842.
- The town as organized embraced the
Clinton of today, and the south half of Bradford and portions
of Turtle and La Prairie. Five sections in the present town of
Turtle were annexed to it in 1843. At this time the town comprises
township 1 north, of range 14 east. Doctor Dennis MILLS,
Milton S. WARNER, Charles TUTTLE and Williams S.
MURRAY were the first explorers of the town, before the
land was in market. Selections of land were made and taken possession
of in the name of the Jefferson Prairie Company, and it was on
the west side of this prairie that the first settlements were
made in April, 1837. A little later Daniel TASKER and
wife and Stephen E. DOWNER and wife located on the southeast
side of the prairie. Subsequent early settlers were Oscar H.
PRATT, Frank MITCHELL, Stacy L. PRATT and
father and sisters, Reuben P. and Si WILLARD, Ezekiel
and Humphrey BROWNELL, Martin MOORE and Henry WHEELER
and their families, H. S. WARNER, Albert and Henry TUTTLE,
Griswold WEAVER and others. The first town meeting was
held at Charles TUTTLE's house, April 5, 1842. Clinton,
an incorporated village in the southeastern part of the county,
on the R. & S. W. division of the C., M. & St. P. Railway,
at the crossing of the Wisconsin's division of the Chicago &
Northwestern Railway, seventy-four miles southwest of Milwaukee
and fourteen miles southeast of Janesville, is in the northwest
part of the town of Clinton. Early settlers there were Deacon
Chauncey TUTTLE, Dr. Dennis MILLS, Milton S. WARNER,
Charles TUTTLE, William S. MURRAY, Stephen E. DOWNER
and Daniel TASKER. The first wedding was that of Ezekiel
BROWNELL and Adelina PRATT, by Joseph S. PIERCE,
J. P. The first religious meeting was held at the house of Charles
TUTTLE, by Elder F. TAPPING, in 1838. The first
birth was that of a daughter of Mrs. S. E. DOWNER, in
1838. The first school was kept at Willis' Corner, in 1843, by
Miss Eliza BAKER. The post-office was established in 1843,
and Stephen PERLEY was the first postmaster. The name
of the office was changed to "Ogden" in 1857, and was
again made Clinton in 1864. The village now contains a ban; two
hotels, an opera-house, three grain elevators, a feed-mill, a
baggage-truck factory, a graded public school, Baptist, Congregational,
Methodist Episcopal and German Lutheran churches, a library and
a number of good stores. A weekly newspaper, the Clinton Herald,
is published here. Population 1000.
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