Clinton Liberal Institute Explained

The Clinton Liberal Institute was a preparatory boarding school established by the Universalist Church in the village of Clinton, in the Town of Kirkland, New York, in 1831. Its main building, a massive stone structure,[1] was the largest building in Clinton for many years. It relocated to Fort Plain, New York, in 1878, taking over the former Fort Plain Seminary, and remaining there until its buildings were destroyed in a fire in 1900.

It was the first educational institution established by American Universalists. It was an institute of so-called religious "liberals". According to its original constitution, "Students shall in no case be persuaded by an officer or teacher to attend meetings of any denomination, and no minister of any denomination shall have the liberty to perform the service of worship within this Institute." Parents did not want their children obligated to attend the services of the sponsoring church, as for example students at the Houghton Seminary, in Clinton, were required to attend Presbyterian services.[2] This provision was later rescinded and in 1841 a resolution of the Board of Trustees urged that "students be affectionately entreated to attend public worship."[3]

Both male and female students studied at the Institute, but separately, with different teachers and in different buildings.

History

Establishment

The Clinton Liberal Institute was the initial educational venture of the Universalist denomination in America.[4] The need for a Universalist school, and the precedent set by the Oneida Institute, was set forth in an article in the April 30, 1831, issue of Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate.[5] According to its author, the article was "setting forth the importance to our cause, and strongly urging the necessity upon Universalists, of establishing a literary institution [non-religious school] of our own, which should be free from the intermeddling and control of the Orthodox sects, where we could send our sons and daughters for an education without their being insulted and kept under the perpetual surveillance of our religious opponents, and where our young men could receive a suitable education, preparatory to the ministry of reconciliation."[6]

Efforts by the Universalist Church to establish a non-denominational and non-sectarian school to train ministers, in the State of New York, began in 1831.[7] [8] The intent of these efforts was to create a school "not only for general purposes of science and literature, but with a particular view of furnishing with an education young men designed for the ministry of reconciliation", due to the perception that other Christian schools that dominated the state were "hostile to the doctrine" of Universalism.[7] To this end, the Clinton Liberal Institute was established in Clinton, New York, and the first students were admitted in November 1831.[7] On April 29, 1834, the New York State Legislature passed a bill entitled "A A to incorporate the Clinton liberal institute", formally allowing a group of eighteen trustees to create "The Clinton Liberal Institute" as a body "for the purpose of providing a literary [non-religious] seminary for the public instruction and education of youth."[9]

No record survives explaining why Clinton was chosen, but the school's 1878 catalog offered this explanation: "[the] climate is agreeable and healthful; the citizens are intelligent, moral, and hospitable, and are deeply interested in the intellectual culture of the young. The village is exceptionally free from the vices and temptations that abound in most towns and cities. The general quiet of the place and its prevailing intellectual and moral tone are highly favorable to study and the development of true character."

Operation

The original building of the Institute, located on eight acres at the southeast corner of Utica and Mulberry Streets, where male students boarded, was four stories tall (plus a basement), with a base 96 by 52 feet, built of gray stone. It cost $9,300 to build and was the largest building in Clinton. A separate wooden building for classes for women, who boarded with families, was two stories tall, and 40 by 25 feet. During the first year there were 108 students.[10] The school was placed under the visitation of the Regents of nearby Hamilton College in 1836.[11] By 1838 it had a library of 1,000 volumes.[12]

The Ladies' Department was located 0.8 miles (1.25 km) away from the men's department, at Chestnut and William Streets, "pleasantly situated at the head of one of the main streets of the village, commanding a view of the whole street and West Park Row, in fact overlooking the entire village."[1] The Ladies' Department had eight pianos.[13]

Both male and female students had free access to the Astronomical Observatory at Hamilton College.[14] According to the school's 1844 Catalogue, "Students will also have the privilege of attending free of charge the Scientific Lectures delivered at Hamilton College, which will comprise a complete course in Chemistry, Philosophy [physics], Geology, and Astronomy. This is an advantage which few schools of this description can enjoy, since the College is but a short walk from the Institute."[15]

In 1839, a call for funds to retire debt stated that 1,000 youth of both sexes had been taught by the Institute.[16]

In 1845, after much discussion within the Universalist Church about establishing a seminary in the state of New York, Reverend Thomas J. Sawyer—a leading proponent of such an establishment—took charge of the Clinton Liberal Institute. He set aside two hours per day to lecture on theology to any students who wanted to attend, at no cost to the students. He continued to offer this additional instruction until the fall of 1853, by which time efforts were underway to open a Universalist seminary elsewhere in New York. Sawyer prepared a total of 37 students to enter the ministry during this period.[7]

According to Cunningham, in his History of Oneida County, "This institution had somewhat of a checkered career, and finally, in 1879, was removed to Fort Plain." The checkered career was the institute's precarious financial status, which threatened its survival: "through a long period the life of the school was an incessant struggle with floating debts and inadequate resources.... Repeatedly—almost periodically during its first years and not rarely later—it encountered financial storms that seemed certain to overwhelm it."[3] The move to Fort Plain reflected the deterioration of the original buildings (the stone of the main building was later used in the construction of Carnegie Hall, on the Hamilton College campus, which opened in 1904). Fort Plain, New York is in Montgomery County. Still named the Clinton Liberal Institute, it occupied in Fort Plain the facilities of the former Fort Plain Female Seminary and Collegiate Institute.[17] [18] [7] In 1887, it had a William Cullen Bryant Literary Society.[19] In 1892, it had thirty pianos.[20] In 1891, the Institute established a military academy (with both male and female cadets) as part of the school,[21] [22] adding "Military Academy" to the school name,[23] and had an armory for the storage of artillery equipment.[22] All of the Institute's buildings at the Fort Plain location were destroyed in a fire on March 25, 1900.[24] [22] The Institute's remaining resources were then transferred to Canton, New York, and merged with the theological school of St. Lawrence University.[24]

Associated individuals

Faculty

Students (alumni)

Archival material

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Anniversary Exercises of Clinton Liberal Institute. The Christian Leader. New York, New York. 28 Jun 1873. 6.
  2. Book: Bakos , Midge . 121. A View from the Steeple. The Founding and Growth of Stone Church, Hamilton College, and the Village of Clinton. Mary Ann. Stiefvater. 2023. The Presbyterian Society of Clinton. 9798858411802.
  3. News: Clinton Liberal Institute. Clinton Courier. August 5, 1965. 8.
  4. Book: Sixty Years of St. Lawrence. Canton, New York. St. Lawrence University. 1916. Malcolm S.. Black. 359.
  5. News: Seminary of Learning for Universalists. Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate. April 30, 1831. 141–143. Dolphus. Skinner.
  6. Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Journal, May 17, 1850, writing on Stephen Rensselaer Smith.
  7. Joseph Henry Allen, Richard Eddy, History of Universalism, p. 486-490.
  8. Book: History of Oneida County, New York. With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Philadelphia. 226. Everts and Fariss. 1878.
  9. Laws of the State of New York: Passed at the Fifty-Seventh Session of the Legislature (1834), p. 364.
  10. Book: Gridley , A[mos] D[elos] . History of the Town of Kirkland New York. New York. Hurd and Houghton. 1874.
  11. John Warner Barber, Henry Howe, Historical Collections of the State of New York (1842), p. 362.
  12. Book: Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Clinton Liberal Institute. 1838. 12.
  13. News: Report of Clinton Liberal Institute. The Christian Leader. New York, New York. November 1, 1873. 1.
  14. Book: Clinton Liberal Institute [handbill]. March 1860. Held by the Clinton Historical Society.
  15. Book: 11. Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Clinton Liberal Institute, at Clinton, Oneida Co., N.Y.. 1844. Held by the Clinton Historical Society.
  16. News: Clinton Liberal Institute. To Universalist Ministers. 19. Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate. January 18, 1839. 10, new series. 3.
  17. Book: Cunningham , Henry J. . 366. I. History of Oneida County New York from 1700 to the Present Time. 1912. Chicago. S.). Clarke Publishing Company.
  18. Web site: The Clinton Liberal Institute :: Fort Plain Free Library. nyheritage.nnyln.net. 2017-08-03. 2017-08-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20170803211441/http://nyheritage.nnyln.net/cdm/ref/collection/fpfl/id/48. dead.
  19. Book: Programme. Third Annual Reception of the William Cullen Bryant Literary Society of Clinton Liberal Institute Fort Plain, N.Y.. February 5, 1887. Held by the Clinton Historical Society.
  20. News: 1. Albany Ahead!. Albany Times-Union. September 24, 1892.
  21. United States. War Department, Annual Report of the Secretary of War (1892), p. 270.
  22. Web site: Clinton Liberal Institute. New York Heritage. August 3, 2017. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20170803090048/http://tealcat.nyheritage.org/collections/clinton-liberal-institute. August 3, 2017.
  23. Web site: Clinton Liberal Institute (Fort Plain, N.Y.). SNAC (Social Networks and Archival Context). October 22, 2023.
  24. Book: Scott , Clinton Lee . The Universalist Church of America: A Short History. 1957. 76.
  25. Book: History of Tufts College. Tufts College. 1896. 168. Tufts College.
  26. A History of American Mathematical Journals. Benjamin F.. Finkel. National Mathematics Magazine. 15. 4. Jan 1941. 177–190, at p. 178. 3028132. jstor.
  27. Book: Heman A. Dearborn, A.M.. 115–116. History of Tufts College. https://archive.org/details/historyoftuftsco00tuftuoft/page/n153/mode/2up. The Class of 1897. Tufts College. Alaric Bertrand. Start. 1896.
  28. Web site: Soule, Caroline Augusta White (1824-1903). Harvard Square Library. September 5, 2023.
  29. Web site: Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography, Caroline Soule . 2017-08-04 . 2018-02-24 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180224051124/http://uudb.org/articles/carolinesoule.html . dead .
  30. Book: 94. A woman of the century; fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches ... of leading American women in all walks of life. Frances Elizabeth. Willard. Mary A.. Livermore. Frances Willard. Mary Livermore. 1893. Charles Wells Moulton. Buffalo.
  31. Web site: Jenkins, Lydia Ann Moulton (c. 1825-1874). Harvard Square Library. September 5, 2023.
  32. Catalog of the Officers and Students of the Clinton Liberal Institute, at Clinton, Oneida County, N.Y., pg 3
  33. News: State Truancy Officer. July 15, 1895. 1. Albany Times-Union.
  34. Daniel Stern, American Artisan (1922), Vol. 83, p. 21.
  35. Web site: Our History – Clinton, NY. www.clintonnychamber.org.
  36. 'Proceedings of the State Bar Association of Wisconsin,' vol. 1, 1905, Biographical Sketch of William Biddlecome, pg. 193.
  37. Lucien Brock Proctor, The Bench and Bar of King's County, N.Y. and the Bench and Bar of the City of Brooklyn (1884), p. 105;
  38. 'Instead of the Brier' : The Life and Works of Mrs. Elizabeth M Bruce, Universalist Author and Minister. Deidre A.. Johnson. Journal of Unitarian Universalist History. 2021. 44. 64–93. Ebscohost.
  39. Clinton's Schools. Percy L.. Wight. Hamilton Alumni Review. 2. May 1937. 117–121.
  40. Book: White, J.T.. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Public domain. 1921. J.T. White. 244.
  41. https://archive.org/stream/newyorkredbook01unkngoog#page/n115/mode/1up The New York Red Book
  42. 'Who's Who In New York State And City,' L. R. Hamersly-editor, L. R. Hamersly Company, New York City: 1905, Biographical Sketch of Jeremiah Keck, pg. 499.
  43. 'New York State Bar Association-Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting, January 19–20, 1912, The Argus Company, New York City: 1912, Biographical Sketch of Philip Keck, pg. 575–576.
  44. News: Simon Lake Dead at 79. June 24, 1945. Albany Times-Union. A2.
  45. Web site: Leonard, Charles H.. Harvard Divinity School Library.
  46. Book: Forty Years of Clinton History. 1915. 2003. Clinton Historical Society (Clinton, New York).
  47. Web site: Jervis McEntee Diary, 1844–1845. Finding Aids. Syracuse University Libraries. 21 August 2013.
  48. News: Hudson River School's McEntee lived in Kingston. Poughkeepsie Journal. 1 Aug 2018. Musso. Anthont. A3.
  49. Notable Deaths. Annals of Iowa. April 1928. 16. 4. America: History and Life with Full Text. 312.
  50. 'Saucepan journalism' in an age of indifference: Moody, Beecher, and Brooklyn's gilded press.. Evensen. Bruce J.. Journalism History. Winter 2001–2002. 27. 4. 165–177. 10.1080/00947679.2002.12062585. Humanities Full Text (H.W. Wilson).
  51. United States Congress, "Charles R. Skinner (id: S000467)", Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  52. https://books.google.com/books?id=T7AsAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA144 Life Sketches of the State Officers, Senators, and Members of the Assembly of the State of New York, in 1867
  53. https://books.google.com/books?id=TPwLAAAAYAAJ&q=streeter&pg=PA738 Courts and Lawyers of Pennsylvaniar: A History, 1623–1923
  54. News: Practiced law over fifty years. Utica Observer. 24 February 1902. 10.
  55. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101061337661;view=1up;seq=188 The State Government for 1879
  56. News: Wilson Won, with Both Hands Down. Albany Express. April 11, 1894. 1.
  57. Guide to Depositories of Manuscript Collections in New York State: Supplement No. 1. New York History. 24. 2. April 1943. 265–270, at p. 267. 23134962.
  58. Web site: Clinton Liberal Institute and Military Academy records, 1881-1899. WorldCat. September 22, 2023.

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