New-York tribune., 1912-04-07
A THREEF0LD LEGACY
What the Cooper Family Did for
Central New York.

! WIN W 'sS' ~
IudCe William Cooper founded town IN
the midst OF wilderness. James Fenimore
Cooper wrote what some regard as the best
romances ever written in America. Susan
Fenimore Cooper founded an orphanage
This is the story:
| The War Of the Revolution left the people
of the new Republic worn out and poor sc
| long and so exhausting had been the strug-
gle. and so great the drain upon the re-
sources of the young nation that several
years elapsed before they recovered sum
GENTLY to take advantage OF their nara
earned independence and TO develop the vast
territory which they had wrested from
King George Western New York had been
the scene Of the fercest warfare, and al
though few. il any. of the earlier settle
ments along the border had been aban-
doned. yet no new ones had been formed
and the primeval forests stretching for hun
dreds of miles lay untouched for many
years.
Prior to the war nearly all the land in
that region had been granted by royal
letters patent TO various individuals. but
little Of 1t had been taken up Years be-
fore the war military forts had been erect
ed TO protect the western border from
French invasion, and when that menace
passed away by reason OF the English con-
quest Of Canada, numbers Of hardy pio-
neers came from other states Chiefly the
New England States) and settled near the
forts The War Of the Revolution, how
ever. nipped this forward movement in the
bud
To Judge William Cooper, the father OF
James Fenimore Cooper, perhaps belongs
the credit Of being the first to revive the
effort 10 bring the wilderness IN Central
New York under cultivation. The story Of
his solitary, three -hundred-mile ride on
horseback from his home in Burlington, n.
j., is we'll known. His own words convey
most vivid picture of what IT meant 10
traverse that wilderness in those early
days. In letter to friend he said:
in 1855 / visited the rough and hily
country OF OtseGo, where there existed not
an inhabitant, nor any trace Of road; l
was alone, three hundred miles from home,
without bread, meat or food Of any kind {;
fire and fishing tackle were my only means
OF subsistence. l caught trout in the brook
and roasted them I'm the ashes. My horse
fed on the grass that grew in the edge Of
the waters l laid me down to sleep in my
watch-coat, nothing but the melancholy
wilderness about me. In this way ] explored
the country. formed my plans Of future
settlement. and medtated upon the site
where a place Of trade or a village should
afterward be established. In May, 1856, j
opened the sale Of 10000 acres Of land,
which In sixteen days were all taken up by
the poorest order Of men. / soon after es-
tablished a store and went 10 live among
them, and continued to do so until 1880,
when ] brought on my family"
That village was afterward named Coop
erstown. Much hardship had to be borne
and many difficulties had 10 be overcome
by those first settlers. In 1889 a famine
nearly wiped out the settlement. and only
an unprecedented visitation Of enormous
numbers Of herring TO the Susquehanna
River saved the people that winter. Will
lam Cooper helped his neighbors freely with
his private means. and eventually Coopers-
town became a thriving place. Thus Will
lam Cooper gave a town TO his country.
James Fcnlmore Cooper, his son, passed
his early years IN the village his father
founded The impressions his youthful
mind derived from the beautiful Lake OF
sego and the surrounding woods were years
afterward transferred TO his novels IN Ian
gusge so powerful and fascinating that 1t
placed him among the worlds great novel
lists. In speaking OF Cooper's boyhood Pro-
fessor Loundsbury says:
ut was at Cooperstown that the future
novelist passed his childhood. so Bryant
has recorded with the vast forest around
him stretching up the mountains that over
look the lake and far beyond in n region
where the Indian yet roarned and the white
hunter. half Indian I'm his mode Of life and
dress, sought his game--a region I'm which
the bear and the wolf were yet hunted,
and the panther, more formidable than
either lurked I'm the thickets. and tales Of
wandering IN the wilderness and encounters
with fierce animals beguiled the length of
the winter nights"
II has been natural to suppose that
Cooper must have had originals for some
Of the characters in his novels. but, except
that the "Gl!mmerglass" I'm THE Deer
slayer is Lake Otsego and Judge Temple
IN Inc Pioneers - iilS OnI idlh'Ig tutIt
is no evidence that he drew upon anything
but his own imagination for any Of those
characters But history has no more real
seeming people than his creative genius
called into being, and Hawkeye, Tom Hut
ter. Judith, Alice. Chingachgook, Uncas
and a host Of others are real people to-
day
''The glory that Cooper won'' said Bry-
ant. was reflected on his country, Of
whose literary independence he was the
pioneer"
Susan Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore
Cooner's daughter. was her fathers con-
slant companion and acted as his secretary
nm to the time of his death Only one
deed is recorded of her, but that one hum
BILE as was its beginning may bear fruit
that ,s even more enduring and beneficial
than the redeeming Of the wilderness or
the attainment of undying fame in the
world Of letters. She took to her home one
little orphan child and patiently raised 1t
| e,,, a., e,.I,,rn and hopeless state, edu-