James Fenimore Cooper | Page 7

and a history of hospitality well deserved."
[Illustration: THE MANOR.]
[Illustration: ORIGINAL OTSEGO HALL.]
[Illustration: JUDGE WILLIAM COOPER.]
To a friend William Cooper wrote: "I began life with a small capital
and a large family, and yet I have already settled more acres than any
man in America; and I trust no one can justly impute to me any act of
oppression. Your good sense and knowledge will excuse this seeming
boast." He elsewhere said that he owed his success to "a steady mind, a
sober judgment, fortitude, perseverance, and above all, common sense."
And here he lived as a wise and kind landlord among his people. For
nine years he was First Judge of the County Court of Common Pleas,
and he served two terms in Congress. Of Judge William Cooper there
are three portraits,--Gilbert Stuart's of 1797-98, Trumbull's of 1806, and
one by an unknown artist. His kindly gray eye, robust figure, and firm
expression bear out the story of his life as told by these portraits.
James Fenimore Cooper, in a letter to his wife, dated Canajoharie, 1834,
wrote of his father: "I have been up to the ravine to the old Frey house.
It recalled my noble-looking, warmhearted, witty father, with his deep
laugh, sweet voice, and fine, rich eye, as he used to light the way with
his anecdotes and fun. Old Frey, with his little black peepers, pipe,
hearty laugh, broken English, and warm welcome, was in the
background. I went to the very spot where one of the old man's slaves
amused Sam and myself with an imitation of a turkey that no artist has
ever yet been able to supplant in my memory." This Heindrick Frey
was a noted character of the Mohawk Valley over one hundred years

ago.
It was, however, to the first home on Otsego's shore that the future
creator of American romance was brought when a babe some thirteen
months old. Here, in the heart of the wilderness, his infancy was passed.
Otsego Hall sheltered his budding boyhood and young manhood. Grace
and refinement dwelt within the household; without, voices of the
forest awakened and nurtured his naturally active mind, which later on
was not less influenced by the mysteries of the sea. The Six Nations
were yet a power in the Mohawk Valley, then the highway to the land
of the setting sun beyond. And they are now remembered in the names
of the principal lakes and streams of the country that once was theirs.
The boy was face-to-face with the "grim warriors, braves, and
chieftains that the man, Fenimore Cooper, translated into his pages,
with a touch true to the red man's life," his instinct in trading, his
friendly and hostile intent. Here Nature was his first and unforgettable
teacher. From "Pages and Pictures," by his daughter, Susan Fenimore
Cooper, much will be given in this book. Miss Cooper has drawn some
pretty pen-pictures of her father's child-life. She writes: "From the first
bow and arrow, kite and ball, to later feats in fishing, riding, shooting,
and skating, all were connected with his highland home." He was
"healthy and active; a brave, blithe-hearted, impetuous, most generous
and upright boy." Of his childhood another record is: "A gray-eyed,
light-haired, ruddy boy, nimble as a deer and gay as a bird; on the lake,
plying his oar lustily or trimming his sail to the mountain breeze; and
whenever he found a wave high enough to lift his little boat, his veins
would thrill with a strange delight, and he would ask himself whether
this was like those ocean waves of which he had heard such wonders."
The little lad's next step in learning was taken under the gentle rule of
his elder sister, Hannah, who had her schooling in New York City, and
afterwards improved her leisure by extensive reading. She was a model
of domestic virtues and was greatly beloved, especially by the poor, to
whom she was ever an angel of mercy. She often went with her father
on his official visits to the seat of government, and when, in 1800, at
the age of twenty-three years, she lost her life by a fall from her horse,
her early death was widely and deeply mourned. Her memory was
always cherished with peculiar tenderness by her brother James, the

special charge of her loving care.
[Illustration: GENERAL WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.]
A letter, written by him in 1841 to his old "messmate," Commodore
Shubrick, reveals no wane of Cooper's love for and pride in this sister,
and his letter's "political discovery" reveals that Miss Cooper's
attractions were as fully appreciated by the eminent of her own country
as by those of foreign shores. So comes into these pages a youthful,
slender romance of the later hero of Tippecanoe and still