1793 AD founded

Hamilton began in 1793 as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy, a seminary founded by Rev. Samuel Kirkland, a Presbyterian minister, as part of his missionary work with the Oneida tribe. The seminary admitted both white and Oneida boys. Kirkland named it in honor of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, who was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy.

It was first located in Whitestown, New York, incorporated by the New York Board of Regents in 1793, and received its charter from them in 1812. A visitor in 1799, who refers to the school as a seminary, reported that there were "fifty-two students of both sexes under the care of two instructors". By 1825 it had moved to Clinton.

The Academy became Hamilton College in 1812, making it the third oldest college in New York after Columbia and Union, after it expanded to a four-year college curriculum.

By the end of the nineteenth century, its colorful ninth President M. Woolsey Stryker distanced Hamilton from the Presbyterian Church (although he was a minister of that denomination and published many hymns), and sought to make it a more secular institution.

In 1978, the all-male Hamilton College merged with the women's Kirkland College, founded by Hamilton across the road in the 1960s. The merger provoked controversy, particularly since Hamilton refused to provide assistance with Kirkland's debts. Hamilton publicly justified the merger as prompted by its desire for co-education. The merger took nearly 7 years to complete; women could still receive a Kirkland diploma instead of a Hamilton diploma until 1979.

Whitestown, NY

Lattitude: 43.123° N
Longitude: 75.3091° W
Region: North America

Modern Day United States

Events in 1793 MORE