[7] In the early and middle 1800s, Clinton grew as a center of commerce and the cotton trade,[3] and was one of the most populous cities in Georgia.

[2][4] During this period, impressive homes were constructed and the town was visited by the Marquis de Lafayette during his 1825 tour of the U.S.[4] The Clinton Female Seminary, incorporated in 1821 and established in 1828,[2] was the forerunner of what would become Macon’s Wesleyan College in neighboring Bibb County.

[4] Clinton began a period of near-terminal decline first with the destruction of the town in 1864 at the hands of the invading Northern armies of William T. Sherman in the American Civil War.

[2] This was compounded when the Central of Georgia Railway bypassed Clinton in favor of nearby Gray due to local opposition.

Today, the nucleus of the original residential portion town forms the Old Clinton Historic District (listed in 1974).