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Hamilton-Oneida Academy
Overview
Hamilton-Oneida Academy (1793–1812) was the predecessor institution to Hamilton College, chartered in Whitestown (town of Paris), Oneida County, New York, to educate both white settlers and Oneida tribal youth. It was named for Alexander Hamilton and incorporated directly into Hamilton College by charter in 1812.
Relevance to Research
Hamilton-Oneida Academy is the direct institutional antecedent of Hamilton College. Understanding its founding, purpose, student population, and physical history is foundational to any account of Hamilton College’s origins. The Documentary History of Hamilton College (1922) documents the academy’s founding documents, trustee lists, physical location, and the gradual reality that Indian students proved difficult to retain despite the interracial educational vision of founder Samuel Kirkland.
Notes
Founded: 1793
Dissolved/absorbed: 1812, when it was “engrafted” into Hamilton College by charter
Location: Whitestown (town of Paris), Oneida County, NY; situated between 80 and 190 rods westwardly from Capt. Cassety’s mills
Charter: Granted by the Board of Regents, January 29, 1793; notably, Hamilton-Oneida Academy and the Academy of the Town of Schenectady (later Union College) were incorporated at the same instant by the same sovereign act
Founding purpose: Chartered for “the mutual benefit of the young flourishing settlements in said County and the various tribes of confederate Indians”
Cornerstone: Laid by Baron Steuben
First trustees: Alexander Hamilton, John Lansing, Egbert Benson, Dan Bradley, Eli Bristol, Erastus Clark, James Dean, Moses Foot, Jonas Platt, Jedidiah Sanger, John Sergeant, Timothy Tuttle, Samuel Wells
Indian student enrollment: In practice, Indian students proved difficult to retain; by 1794, only 1–4 Indian boys at the school at a time; Ebenezer Caulkins noted in 1794 that “the white children like to have them here, and are very fond of their improving with them”
Early schoolmaster: Ebenezer Caulkins; the schoolhouse burned and was rebuilt within three weeks c. 1794
Physical remains: The academy building stood midway between South College and the Chapel; taken down in 1832; its foundation walls were still visible in parched mid-summer grass as late as 1868; recorded as building #1 on the 1850–1853 campus map: “Site of Hamilton Oneida Academy, 1793–1832”