History of Clinton, (Oneida County) New York United States of America

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Biographies:

Aaron Macy Powell, reformer, was born in Clinton, N.Y., March 26, 1832; son of Townsend and Catharine (Macy) Powell; grandson of James and Martha (Townsend) Powell and of Abraham and Elizabeth (Coleman) Macy, and a descendant of Thomas Powell of Westbury, Long Island, whose will is dated 1mo 3rd, 1719. On his mother's side the first ancestor in this country is John Howland of the Mayflower, 1620. His parents were members of the Society of Friends and active abolitionists. He attended the New York State Normal school, but did not graduate, as he was urged to accept the position of lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery society, and served as such, 1852-65, and as secretary of the society, 1866-70. He edited the National AntiSlavery Standard, 1865-72; the National Temperance Advocate, 1872-99, and the Philanthropist, 1886-99. He was assistant secretary of the National Temperance society, 1873-94; and was president of the National Purity alliance. He was a delegate to the International Prison congress in London in 1872, and to the congress for the abolition of the state regulation of vice, in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1877, the Hague in 1883, and in London in 1886. He is the author of: State Regulation of Vice (1878); The Beer Question (1881); The National Government and the Liquor Traffic (1882), and Personal Reminiscences of Anti-Slavery and Other Reforms (1900). He died in Philadelphia, Pa., May 13, 1899.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Samuel Kirkland, missionary, was born in Norwich, Conn., Dec. 1, 1741; son of the Rev. Daniel Kirtland. When he became of age he restored the original spelling of the family name. He was a student at Dr. Wheelock's school, Lebanon, Conn., and was graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1765, although he left the college eight months before to go as a missionary among the Seneca Indians, where he labored, 1764-66, and on returning home brought one of the Seneca chiefs with him. He was ordained a Congregational missionary at Lebanon, Conn., in June, 1766, under the sanction of the Scotch Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen. In August, 1766, he took up his residence among the Oneida Indians near Fort Stanwix, N.Y., where he labored until 1769, when he retired to his home in Norwich. In the autumn of that year he was married to Jerusha Bingham, a niece of Dr. Eleazar Wheelock, and she assisted him in his missionary work among the Oneida Indians until 1775, when the dangers of frontier life compelled them to remove to Stockbridge, Mass. During the Revolution he was active in trying to keep the Six Nations neutral, but was successful only with the Oneidas, the other five having been influenced to join the British. He was made chaplain to Fort Schuyler and brigade-chaplain to Gen. John Sullivan in 1778, and accompanied him in his expedition from Wyoming against the Senecas in that year. He returned to Fort Schuyler for a time and then to Stockbridge, Mass., and at the close of the war received a grant of land from congress and one jointly from the Indians and the state of New York in 1788, on which was founded the town of Kirkland. He resumed his missionary work among the Indians and in 1790 accompanied a party of Senecas to Philadelphia, Pa. He made an Indian census of the Six Nations in 1791, and also founded a school for the education of American and Indian boys, and gave three hundred acres of land for the use and benefit of the academy, which was to be leased and the product applied to the support of an "able instructor." It was incorporated as Hamilton Oneida academy in 1793, and was the beginning of Hamilton college, being known as such from 1812. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Yale in 1768 and from Dartmouth college in 1773. His name was one of the twenty-one in "Class E, Missionaries and Explorers," submitted for a place in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, New York university, in October, 1900, and received one vote, none in the class receiving the fifty-one votes necessary to secure a place. His son, John Thornton Kirkland, was president of Harvard, 1810-28. Samuel Kirkland died at Clinton, N.Y., Feb. 28, 1808.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Edward Payson Powell, clergyman and author, was born in Clinton, N.Y., in 1833; son of John and Mary (Johnson) Powell, and descended from the Powells of Washington, Conn., and from the Johnsons of Windsor, Vt. He was graduated from Hamilton college in 1853, and from Union Theological seminary, 1858, having been tutor at Hamilton college, 1856-57. He was stated supply at Deansboro, N.Y., 1858-61; was ordained, Oct. 29, 1861; was pastor of Plymouth Congregational church, Adrian, Mich., 1861-71; of Mayflower church, St. Louis, Mo., 1871-73; editor of the Globe-Democrat, St. Louis, 1873-74, and pastor of the Third Unitarian church, Chicago, Ill., 1874-77. After 1877 he resided in Clinton, N.Y., where he engaged in literary as well as horticultural pursuits, besides preaching in Utica, N.Y., 1880-86. He was elected a member of the Chicago Academy of Sciences; the American Arbitration congress, Washington, 1896; the American Historical society; vice-president of the Congress of Religion, and member of the committee of one hundred to establish a National University at Washington. His published writings include: Our Heredity from God (1886; Berlin, 1889); Liberty and Life (1890); Nullification and Secession in the United States (1896); Windbreaks, Hedges and Shelters (1900); Old Home Days (1901). In 1903 he was editor of the Independent, and a frequent contributor to periodicals.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Levi Thomas Griffin, representative, was born in Clinton, N.Y., May 23, 1837; son of Charles Nathaniel and Margery (Thomas) Griffin; and grandson of Nathaniel and Parnell (Clark) Griffin, and of Levi and Margery (Dorrance) Thomas. He removed with his parents to Rochester, Mich., in 1848, attended the public schools, and was graduated from the University of Michigan in 1857. He was admitted to the bar and practised at Detroit, Mich. He was commissioned by Governor Blair 2d lieutenant of the 4th Michigan cavalry, Dec. 18, 1862; was promoted 1st lieutenant, Feb. 1, 1863; adjutant, April 15, 1863; captain, Feb. 25, 1864, and was brevetted major, March 13, 1865. At the close of the war he returned to Detroit where he continued to practise law. He was Fletcher professor of law at the University of Michigan, 1886-97, and was a candidate for justice of the supreme court in 1887, but was defeated by James V. Campbell. He was elected a representative from the 1st district of Michigan in the 53d congress as a Democrat, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of John Logan Chipman, Aug. 17, 1893, serving from Dec. 4, 1893, to March 4, 1895. He was defeated for re-election in 1894 and resumed his law practice.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor