Clinton Township occupies the south-central part of DeKalb County, comprising T38N, R4E of the 3^rd P.M.  It was established on 6 November 1849, with its name derived from Clinton, New York, the hometown of some of the area’s early settlers.  Clinton Township first included a part of Victor and Afton townships, and assumed its present dimensions in 1853.  Clinton was settled later than most townships because of limited timber resources (Boies 1868:499-500; Davy 1963:171-175; Gross 1907:138).

Reuben M.  Pritchard was the first county supervisor and held this position intermittently for twenty years.  The historic Pritchard House is located near the southwest corner of Leland and South Preserve roads in Section 30 (Bigolin 2001:38).
 

The first settlers arrived in this township in April 1835.  Oliver P.  Johnson was first to make a claim, settling a cabin at Johnson’s Grove in the southwest part (later renamed Pritchard’s Grove).  In 1843, nine families had settled the township including those of W.B.  Fields, Parker Thomas, Alexander McNish, Silas Hines, John and James Walker, Preston Curtiss, William Robertson, and C.B.  Whitford.  In 1845 and 1846, six families settling the township included those of Shelburne and Tracy Scott, Felix and Baldwin Woodruff, and Sylvester and Elbert Hall. 

The population of Clinton Township has been largely rural and small with 350 recorded in 1850; 867 in 1855; 1,006 in 1860; 1,004 in 1870; and 1,663 in 2000 (Boies 1868:499-500; Davy 1963:171-175; Gross 1907:138).

The Chicago and Iowa Railroad extended through the township during 1870 and 1871 (taken over by the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy in 1873).  The railroad was influential in the founding of the Village of Waterman – a community named after Daniel B.  Waterman of Aurora, general solicitor of the C.  & I. Railroad.  In March 1872, the village was surveyed and platted by S.T.  Armstrong from land owned by Humphrey Roberts, a prominent township farmer.  Many late nineteenth and early twentieth century landmarks have been documented, with some described below.

An interim report on historic landmarks prepared by the Illinois Historic Landmarks Survey (1974) lists the Clinton Township Public Library at Elm Street and U.S.  30 (DK-H-17) and the Wiltberger Memorial Clock at Cedar Street and U.S.  30 (DK-H-18).  The HAARGIS database shows several landmark homes associated with an attractive residential district along Elm Street in the village.  Stephen Bigolin (2001:29) notes a historically significant landmark – a white frame home dating to 1870 just north and east of the Waterman Road and Duffy Road intersection near the village limits (about 1.5 miles SE of the project).  It was the residence of Henry Martin Rose, who displayed an exhibit at an agricultural fair in the spring 1873 (held near Altgeld Hall on the NIU campus) – giving the idea of barbed-wire fencing to Joseph Glidden, Jacob Haish, and Isaac Ellwood.