The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-08-28
REMINDERS OF COOPER.
The Home of the Great American Novel
list as 1t Appears To-day.

| The Home of the Great American Novel
| list 1t Appears To-day.
The romance of a locality made IA
nous by the writings of Fenimore
Cooper is doubtless the charm of the
Cooperstown of to-day. People come
here, it is true, for fresh and whole
some country air, for rest and quiet;
for natural scenery and homely enjoy
ment, and they find it all. But more
especially, l imagine, they come here
to visit the scenes made familiar in the
ever-popular Leather Stocking tales.
Forty years ago Cooperstown boosted
the most notable society of any interior
town of the State. 1t was not then a
popular summer resort, but every sea-
son found visitors of culture and refine
ment enjoying the generous hospitality
of Otsego Hall, Cooper's home. Occa-
sional special terms of the United
States Circuit Court, held here to suit
the convenience of Justice Nelson,
brought lawyers of distinction here
from all parts of the country, frequently
accompanied by their wives and daugh-
tiers, and the Bowers family, the More.
houses, the Premises, the Campbells,
the Keys, the Scots, the Averills, the
Nicholses, the Pomeroys, the Phinneys,
the Starkweathers and others kept
open houses for their city friends
There were no hotels here then-noth-
ing but the ordinary country tavern
so that the promiscuous summer visitor
was infrequent. Private entertain
ments were then chief charm, and
lake parties to the historic old Three
Mile point, under the guidance of Joe
| Tom, the colored master of ceremonies,
were the grand events.
But Cooperstown has changed. Now
the stage-coach is superseded by the
railroad, and passengers are landed
here directly from palace-cars. Grand
hotels invite general patronage. Joe
Toms roomy old scows, which then
conveyed the happy picnickers up the
quiet lake, returning them via the
Echo, where his stentorian lungs awoke
the vigorous responses of Natty Bumppo
himself, and his stalwart whistle called
back melodies from the hills, are now,
like their owner, memories of the past,
having given place to the bustling,
footing, noisy steamboat, with its bust
ness air and no nonsense about it.
In the good old days James Fenimore
! Cooper was called an aristocrat, and
his home was carefully guarded from
the intrusion of the vulgar and ignor-
ant. But the doors of Otsego Hall
always stood invitingly open to all
corners of intelligence and ordinary re-
! finement, whether rich or poor. Cooper
himself was a t-socially as
well as politically. He mixed with the
village people freely, and his charming
| daughters spent their days in missions
of charity and sympathy among the
needy and distressed. Cooper always
| had pleasant word for all, old or
young. Scores of times have Iseen him
with the crowd awaiting the opening
of the mail at the post-oflice, talking
familiarity with his feltow-townsmen,
| or entertaining swarm of village
urchins by teaching them how to tie
| the various sailors knots, using the
storekeeper's coil of rope for easy illus
| tration. In those days there used to be
a character in the village of no great re-
pute beyond his gift for lying and boast
ing of his past history. Cooper cornered
him one evening in the post-office and
began questioning him, to the great
! amusement of the fast-increasing
crowd. He was born in England, emil
grated to the West Indies when he was
a young man; lived in Bermuda score
of years; followed the sea as sailor
fifteen or twenty years; had lived in
various cities of the United States, so
many years in each, and finally had
been in Cooperstown fifteen years.
Cooper gave him plenty of rope and
kept mental tally of his years. When
he had finished the old tramp was con-
fused by Cooper's quiet remark:
"Well, John, for man l63 years old
you look remarkably young"
Of the Cooper family, three daugh-
tiers and his only son still survive. The
son, Paul, is lawyer in good practice
in Albany. The three daughters
one the widow of Richard Cooper,
another the widow of Frederick Phin-
ney, and the other, Miss Susan-still
reside in the village. Miss Susan de-
votes her time to the care and man
agement of an orphanage, begun a
number of years ago in small way
with her own resources, and now
grown to large institution under the
special patronage of the Protestant
Episcopal diocese of Albany. 1t is the
principal public charity of the village.
The old home of the Coopers-Otsego
Hall-was transformed into a hotel
after the death of the novelist, and
was soon after burned. The property
then passed into the hands Of George
Clark, and has been permitted to go to
decay, and is now On eye-sore to the
village, as is much other desirable
property of the same ownership
Cor. N. Y. Sun.