By Margaret Schram

Directly south of the hamlet of Clermont is the community called Nevis. It has been surmised that the name was bestowed by the Livingstons after the Caribbean Island of that name, one of the Leeward Islands in the British West Indies, possibly because of their sugar plantation interests there. The island is also the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton. In 1871, Nevis contained a schoolhouse, store, wagon shop, dwellings and a post office.

In the southeastern section of the town, where the Roeliff Jansen sweeps northward after touching down on the Dutchess County line, was the now lost settlement called Pleasant Vale or Pleasantvale. It was the site of an early grist mill that was known as the "straw mill" because its roof was thatched with straw. Owned by the Livingstons, it was run by others who eventually added a sawmill, and then fulling and carding mills. A new grist mill was built there in 1848, but in 1869 a flood washed everything away. The flood also changed the course of the stream, making any future manufacturing there impossible.

The Towns of Gallatin and Livingston also claim part of this community. In 1873, the Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad ran its tracks into the small extension of the Town of Clermont. The depot there was called Elleslee, for a brief time.

Centered on the boundary with Germantown, a location was given the name of Viewmont. It is the site of the cemetery and parsonage of the Lutheran Church, but the church, earlier known as the East Camp church, is over the boundary in the Town of Germantown.