Hamilton (United States)

Hamilton city (1990 pop. 61,368), seat of Butler co., SW Ohio, on the Great Miami River; inc. 1857. An agricultural trading and manufacturing center, Hamilton has paper and pulp mills and produces safes, machinery, chemicals, textiles, and auto parts. Steel and insurance are also important. Hamilton was settled on the site of Fort Hamilton, built in 1791. William Dean Howells was raised there. Points of interest include the Soldiers', Sailors', and Pioneers' Monument and the county historical society. Miami Univ. of Ohio has a branch in Hamilton.

Hamilton, Australia, Bermuda, Canada, New Zealand, UK, USA 1. Bermuda: founded in 1790 and named after Henry Hamilton (d. 1796), governor of the island at the time. It has been the capital since 1815.2. Canada (Ontario): originally the site was called Burlington Bay. When it was settled in 1813 it was renamed after George Hamilton (1787–1835) who had laid out the city.3. New Zealand (North Island): originally a military outpost erected on the site of a deserted Maori village called Kirikirioa, it was renamed after Captain John Hamilton, a British Royal Navy officer who was killed while fighting the Maori, when it became a city in 1877.4. UK (Scotland): formerly Cadzow and renamed in 1445 after a family called Hamilton, itself probably derived from a place meaning a ‘farmstead in rough country’ from the Old English hamel ‘broken’ and tūn. The Hamiltons received it from Robert I the Bruce (1274–1329), King of Scots (1306–29), after victory over the English at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.5. USA (Ohio): founded in 1794 as Fairfield adjacent to Fort Hamilton which had been named after Alexander Hamilton (1755–1804), the illegitimate son of a Scottish father, who became the first secretary of the US Treasury (1789–95). Fairfield was later renamed Hamilton.