Clinton, South Carolina

==History==
The Cherokee Indians were Clinton's original inhabitants. The first settler to inhabit the area was John Duncan, a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, who arrived in 1752 from Pennsylvania and settled along a creek between the present-day towns of Clinton and Whitmire.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://local.townsquarepublications.com/southcarolina/laurenscounty/history.html|title=History of Laurens County|website=Laurens County, South Carolina|access-date=November 30, 2017}}</ref>

Scots-Irish immigrants from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia became the predominant settlers in the area in the two decades before the [[American Revolutionary War]] a<nowiki/>nd took active part in a Revolutionary War battle in 1780 at nearby [[Musgrove Mill State Historic Site|Musgrove Mill]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://southcarolinaparks.com/musgrove-mill|title=Musgrove Mill {{!}} South Carolina Parks Official Site|website=southcarolinaparks.com|language=en|access-date=2017-11-29}}</ref>

As late as 1852, the town was called Five Points because it arose at the intersection of four major roads and the railroad.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Clinton a Brief History|last=Griffith|first=Nancy|publisher=The History Press|year=2010|isbn=9781596296473|location=Charleston, South Carolina|pages=13–15}}</ref> It was named Clinton after Henry Clinton Young,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.laurenscounty.org/cities-towns/|title=Cities & Towns|publisher=Laurens County Chamber of Commerce|access-date=15 December 2022}}</ref> a lawyer from the county seat of [[Laurens, South Carolina|Laurens]], who planned the first roads in the area.<ref name=":0" />

As the railroad began to grow, so did the town, and more plots of land were developed around the railroad. With the population's growth came the establishment of the First Presbyterian Church in 1855.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fpcclinton.org/aboutus|title=First Presbyterian Church - Clinton, SC: About Us|website=www.fpcclinton.org|access-date=2017-11-30}}</ref>

[[Image:Child workers in Clinton, SC.jpg|thumb|left|200px|A few of the employees in the Clinton Mills, going home from work. December 1908. Photographed by [[Lewis Hine]].]]

In 1895, "factory fever" had struck the town of Clinton. This came with the establishment of the Clinton Cotton Mill in 1896<ref>{{Cite book|title=Clinton a Brief History|last=Griffith|first=Nancy|publisher=The History Press|year=2010|isbn=9781596296473|location=Charleston, South Carolina|pages=52–53}}</ref> by Mercer Silas Bailey, owner of the town's leading dry goods store. Lydia Cotton Mill, also owned by the Baileys and their descendants, followed in 1902.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://library.sc.edu/socar/uscs/2004/bailey04.html|title=Records, 1895-1981, of the Clinton and Lydia Cotton Mills founded by Mercer Silas Bailey|date=2004|website=University of South Carolina Libraries|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924070346/http://library.sc.edu/socar/uscs/2004/bailey04.html|archive-date=2015-09-24|url-status=dead}}</ref>  In 1933 there is a documented case of the [[lynching of Norris Dendy]], a 33-year-old African-American man, in Clinton after he was arrested for striking a white man.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SzZjQtsyC-kC&q=clinton+south+carolina&pg=PA1|title=Desire, Violence & Divinity in Modern Southern Fiction: Katherine Anne Porter, Flannery O'Connor, Cormac McCarthy, Walker Percy|last=Ciuba|first=Gary M.|date=2007|publisher=LSU Press|isbn=9780807131756|page=1|language=en}}</ref>

The mills continued to be a vital source of prosperity for Clinton until their closure in 2001<ref>{{Cite book|title=Clinton a Brief History|last=Griffith|first=Nancy|publisher=The History Press|year=2010|isbn=9781596296473|location=Charleston, South Carolina|pages=129–134}}</ref> brought years of economic hardship from which the area is still struggling to emerge.

The [[Clinton Commercial Historic District (Clinton, South Carolina)|Clinton Commercial Historic District]], [[Duncan's Creek Presbyterian Church]], and [[Thornwell-Presbyterian College Historic District]] are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="Clinton, SC">{{Cite news|url=https://datausa.io/profile/geo/clinton-sc/#intro|title=Clinton, SC|work=Data USA|access-date=2017-12-01}}</ref><ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>