Founded in 1787 by pioneers from Connecticut, the picturesque village was widely known during the 19th century for its many private secondary schools, a distinction that earned it the sobriquet Schooltown. For nearly 100 years, these academies and seminaries met the educational needs of hundreds of students throughout the Northeast, including U.S. president Grover Cleveland, Red Cross founder Clara Barton and transcontinental railroad visionary and university founder Leland Stanford.

Other famous people in American history attended Hamilton College, which sits atop a hill overlooking the village. Founded in 1793 as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy by the Revered Samuel Kirkland, a missionary to the Oneida Indians, it was chartered as a college in 1812 by the New York State Board of Regents. Today it stands as one of America's oldest and finest liberal arts colleges. Among its many prestigious alumni are abolitionist Gerrit Smith, U.S. Vice President James Sherman, painter Daniel Huntington, poet Ezra Pound, and distinguished statesman Elihu Root.