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Blanchester Area Historical Society

Establishment of Clinton County.

Establishment of Clinton County.

1810. Clinton County seat - Wilmington
The county seat of Clinton County was actually chosen before there was a town. The location was chosen because it is roughly in the center of the county. Once the site was picked the town was platted with lots and streets laid out.

"Originally named "Clinton" after the county it was soon change to "Armenia". The donors of the land didn't like that and it was renamed "Mount Pleasant". That one didn't fly either and it was renamed "Wilmington" after the towns in Delaware and North Carolina where some of the local residents had migrated from.

"At a term of the Court of Common Pleas, on June 21, 1810, present Jesse Hughes, Thomas Hinkson and George McManis, Associate Judges, and Warren Sabin, Clerk pro tem., the court ordered that the Director proceed to layout the town for the county seat.

Accordingly, Mr. McManis proceeded to layout the town, and, by August 2, 1810, had ready a plat representing the lots regularly numbered and the streets properly named; and, on the 5th and 7th of the same month one-half the lots were sold to the highest bidders for the same. The sale was largely attended and competition ran high. The name given the town on the official plat, was Clinton, from Gen. George Clinton, of New York, for whom the county had been named.

On September 10, 1810, the court ordered the name of the town to be changed from 'Clinton' to 'Armenia.' On December 31, the name was again changed by the court, on request of the donors, to Mount Pleasant. But this last name was not more satisfactory than the others had been, and on February 10, 1811, the Court of Common Pleas which had charge of the matter, made an order that the county seat be called Wilmington, from cities of the same name in Delaware and North Carolina, from which States emigrants had come to this locality, and that the name be not altered again without a Legislative act."

Source: The History Of Clinton County. W. H. BEERS & CO. 1882.
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