CLARKSVILLE – Clarksville turned 175 years old on Wednesday, and residents of the New Scotland hamlet celebrated with the Clarksville Historical Society, which hosted a birthday party in the Clarksville Community Church. 

The Clarksville area was first settled in the early 1700s by trappers and adventurers traveling West from the Hudson Bay.  The hamlet, formerly known as Bethlehem P.O., was the first post office in New Scotland.  New Scotland was part of Bethlehem at the time, which caused confusion with the Postal Service, so the name was changed to Clarksville in honor of Adam Abel Clark in 1833.  At the time, Clark was an innkeeper and served as the village postmaster, and had been a drummer in the War of 1812. 

“Clark was a very lucky man,” said historian Joe Hogan, president of the Clarksville Historical Society.  “He wasn’t born here, and he isn’t buried here, but the place is named after him.  He was really just in the right place at the right time.”

Hogan, who has been researching Clarksville history for years, founded the society in 2004 with seven other residents of the hamlet.  The society has devoted much of its time to raising money for historical markers, and boasts the first double-sided marker in the state.

Hogan says he hopes to move the organization into the Woodside School soon, using the basement for archival storage and the main building as a museum. 

The society hopes to restore the schoolhouse to its original condition.  The Woodside School, a one-room schoolhouse Hogan says dates back to the 1860s, was a summer home for a period of time but is now a charge of the Department of Transportation after its relocation made way for the realignment of Route 32.  Although construction has not yet begun for the road, the school was moved in 2004 and placed on top of a basement, which cost the DOT $200,000 in 2004.  Although the basement would not have been part of the original design, Hogan says it would be an ideal location for the society’s archival storage.  Hogan says that the artifacts collected by the Society are being stored with various members because they have no permanent home.  The school has several broken windows, but the DOT will not permit anyone to fix them or work on the building in any way, because it is a historic building.

“I’ve told them before, if they let it go, it will fall before anyone can get anything out of it,” said Hogan as he gazed at the structure, its red and white paint curled away from the weathered gray boards underneath.