In the beginning
In 1836, Clinton was platted as a village and christened the governmental seat of what was then called Rives County, which was later renamed Henry County in honor of patriot Patrick Henry. The village was called Clinton after DeWitt Clinton, governor of New York. The Village of Clinton took form in 1837 as James M. Goff marked off 64 lots and platted the streets on the area’s highest ground, which now surrounds today’s downtown square.
The first business on the square – a tavern and hotel – was opened by John Nave in 1837 and called Pollard’s Tavern. As businesses were built, so were homes for those who came to settle in Clinton. In 1839, the courthouse, built from bricks fired from local clay, was completed and court was in session. The cost $2,565 when finished. Less than 50 years later, however, the building was condemned and razed. The cornerstone for the current courthouse was laid in June 1892. Made of Warrensburg sandstone, the building was completed a year later. Inside the stone, according to reports, is a copper box that serves as a time capsule. A 127-foot-tall tower graced the courthouse originally, and the steel supports for the tower remain in the attic. Though impressive, the tower began leaking almost as soon as it was finished, and it was removed in 1969.
The railroad arrives
Early settlers continued to come to Clinton. They built homes on the eastern outskirts of the village in the 1840s, and in 1852 Judge Dorman built the first two-story home in Clinton. By 1870, Franklin School, the first high school, was built and the railroad had arrived. The railroad eventually known as the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, or the Katy, began in 1865 and reached Clinton a short time later. With the arrival of the railroad, Clinton began to prosper as its population grew to 2,868 by 1880.
The 1880s saw the installation of the first gas street lamps and the first waterworks. The Blair Railroad line connected Clinton to Kansas City, with other rail lines arriving soon after. In 1891, the first city hall was built and by 1895, the black population of Clinton was celebrating thirty years of freedom during an Emancipation Celebration.
Sulphur spring provides ‘healing waters’
In the 1880s, while drilling for gas, a crew struck water – a well that became known as The Great Artesian White Sulphur Springs Well. Throughout the rest of the 19th Century, developers worked to create a health resort. The area surrounding the spring included a lake, the three-story White Sulphur Springs Hotel, a dance hall and the county fairgrounds, which featured a racetrack with seating for as many as 3,000 people. Trolleys and carriages transported tourists from downtown Clinton to the resort. More adventuresome visitors could even board a wooden boat and try the water ride Chute the Chutes, which hurtled the boats downhill and across the lake. The waters of the spring began to diminish after the turn of the century, and the number of visitors decreased. Though the hotel and other buildings are now gone and the park is part of the city’s park system, Artesian Park remains an important piece of local history.
In Clinton, the egg came first
By 1925, Clinton was known as the Baby Chick Capital of the World, as Royal Booth established his Central Breeding Farms, equipped with an incubator holding more than one million eggs. Other hatcheries followed Booth’s lead, and by 1936, farmers produced truckloads of eggs and poultry. Larabee Mills was producing Airy Fairy Flour and Larabee’s Best Flour and claimed to be the largest soft wheat mill in the world.
During the 1950s through 1970s, as the population continued to increase, Clinton welcomed an industrial park, manufacturers, a hospital and clinic, housing developments, country clubs and golf courses, and shopping centers.
Truman Lake provides economic boon
The shape of the community began to change again when what was originally called the Kaysinger Bluff Dam and Reservoir was authorized in 1954 for flood control. Congress renamed the Kaysinger project the Harry S. Truman Dam and Reservoir in 1970. Construction had begun in August 1964, and the spillway gates closed in October 1979. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers currently manages 259 square miles of land and water at Truman Lake. At 56,000 acres, Truman is the largest flood control lake in Missouri and has a national reputation for crappie and bass fishing.
Clinton’s history and heritage are alive and easily viewed in modem-day Clinton. The Henry County Museum and Cultural Arts Center, at 203 W. Franklin in the historic downtown square, provides glimpses of the city’s past. The museum complex includes a restored Anheuser-Busch distribution center, an adjacent annex with a village from the early 1900s and a dog trot log house. |
