08-04-2025
From Washington to Trump: Future, sitting and former presidents have visited Mohawk Valley
From Washington to Trump: Future, sitting and former presidents have visited Mohawk Valley
When former President Barack Obama speaks at Hamilton College on Thursday evening, he'll be far from the first president — former, present or future — to visit the Mohawk Valley.
George Washington himself visited Oneida County in 1783.
That was before he became president, but at least six sitting presidents have visited the area: Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Harry S. Truman, Obama and President Donald Trump.
Abraham Lincoln also visited Utica days before his inauguration.
Here's a history of some local visits by future, current and former presidents:
1783. General George Washington, who would become president in 1789, visited the site of the Battle of Oriskany and later bought land in the region.
Feb. 18,1861. The three-car train carrying President-Elect Abraham Lincoln on a 12-day journey from Springfield, Illinois to Washington, D.C. for his inauguration on March 4 stopped in Utica for 10 minutes. Lincoln spoke briefly on non-political matters to the crowd that had gathered in a snowstorm to see him. It was the same day that Jefferson Davis was sworn in as temporary president of the Confederate States of America.
1865. The funeral train carrying Lincoln's body back to Illinois after his assassination stopped in Utica for several minutes. The German Glee Club, forerunner to today's Utica Maennerchor, sang.
April 21, 1884. A 25-year-old Theodore Roosevelt, a New York State assemblyman at the time, arrived in Utica two days before the Republican State Convention began at the Utica Opera House at Lafayette and Washington streets. By the end of the convention, Roosevelt had been elected as an at-large delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, chosen to head the New York delegation in Chicago and drawn notice as an up-and-coming national politician. Roosevelt visited Utica often while serving in the state Assembly.
1887. President Glover Cleveland came to Clinton to celebrate its centennial. Cleveland had lived briefly in Clinton as a boy before the family moved to Fayetteville and then settled in Holland Patent. When he was first elected in 1884, his sister Rose had left her home in Holland Patent to serve as his First Lady for 15 months until Cleveland married Frances Folsom.
1890s. Benjamin Harrison, who left office in 1893, spent much of his time after retirement at his summer home on Second Lake near Old Forge. He and his wife Mary reportedly enjoyed shopping in downtown Utica.
Aug. 8, 1908. Roosevelt, in his second term as president, dedicated the Robinson Memorial Library in Jordanville in Herkimer County. The library was a gift to the town from Roosevelt's sister Corinne Robinson and her husband Douglas, who lived in the area.
1912. President William Howard Taft came to Utica to attend the funeral of his vice president, James Schoolcraft Sherman, a two-decade Congressman for the area, who died on Oct. 30, 1912.
Oct. 25, 1928. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in a tight race for governor at the time, attended a rally at Mohawk and Bleecker streets in Utica. The really was organized by Democratic Party leader Charles Donnelley and the head of East Utica's Democratic machine, Rufus Elefante.
1948. President Harry S. Truman's spoke in Utica as part of his 'whistle-stop' train tour that summer. He invited Mayor Boyd Golder into the presidential dining car for a chat.
1950s. Ronald Reagan, then the host of the TV series 'General Electric Theater,' drew large crowds when he visited the GE plants in Utica.
1960. Then presidential candidate John F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at Utica Memorial Auditorium and attended an outdoor rally in front of the courthouse in Rome.
1974. Vice President Gerald Ford attended a cocktail party in his honor at the Oneida County Airport along with Utica Mayor Edward Hanna. Ford had previously visited Utica as Speaker of the House to speak to Republican Party groups. And in 1966, then House Minority Leader Ford spoke to 1,200 people at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner at The Beeches in Rome.
1983. Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush visited Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, hosted by his friend U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert.
1988. George W. Bush campaigned for his father during a two-hour stopover at Oneida County Airport that included a visit to Oriskany High School.
2001. Jimmy Carter spoke at Hamilton College.
Nov. 9, 2004. Bill Clinton spoke to a crowd of 4,600 at Hamilton College. Another 1,100 watched on closed circuit TV on campus.
May 22, 2014. While in office, Barack Obama flew into Griffiss International Airport in Rome, flew by helicopter to a helipad outside Cooperstown and was driven by a motorcade to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown where he gave a 15-minute speech on tourism. Cooperstown schools closed early so students could watch the motorcade drive through town.
April 12, 2016. Presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke to a crowd of 5,000 at a rally at Griffiss International Airport.
Aug. 13, 2018. President Trump flew into Griffiss again, on Air Force One this time, and was met by a crowd that clapped, cheered and chanted, 'USA! USA!' He met with Brian and Lynnette Wyman, parents of Oneida County Deputy Kurt Wyman who was killed in the line of duty in 2011. Trump then traveled by motorcade to the Doubletree Hilton Hotel Utica to attend a private fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney. Trump supporters rallied on the west side of Genesee Street while a crowd of protesters lined the east side of the street.
April 3, 2025. Obama speaks at Hamilton College in Clinton.
The information in this article is pieced together from the Observer-Dispatch archives. Much of the information comes from columns written by Frank Tomaino, a former O-D city editor and long-time history columnist who died on Jan. 3.
