James Fenimore Cooper | Page 9

country-seat of
Stephen Clark, Esq. "Edgewater," overlooking Lake Otsego, is the land
that, after Judge Cooper's death in 1809, fell to his son Isaac. Here, the
following year, Isaac Cooper built his home of brick. Later, it changed
in form, use, and ownership, but again became a family possession
through the marriage of Mr. Theodore Keese with the daughter of
George Pomeroy and Ann Cooper. Renewing in all ways the charm and
grace of its early days, "Edgewater," as the home of Mr. George
Pomeroy Keese, the grandson of Fenimore Cooper's youngest sister
Ann, commands at the foot of the lake its length, breadth, beauty, and
inspiration.

[Illustration: "EDGEWATER."]
The old stone house, known as the "Deacon Pomeroy's place," that
stood at the corner of Main and River streets, gives--in a quaint
gable--an enduring record of romance in this sister Ann's young-life. It
was built of stone in the peculiar herring-bone style by Judge William
Cooper for a wedding gift to his only living daughter, Ann, when she
married George Pomeroy, grandson of Gen. Seth Pomeroy and lineal
descendant of that Sir Ralph de Pomeroy who came to England with
William the Conqueror. In this quaint gable appear the intertwined
letters G.A.P.C.--the initials of the bridegroom and bride,--with the date
1804 beneath.
[Illustration: MR. AND MRS. GEORGE POMEROY.]
The Cooper room of this old stone house, now the home of Mrs.
Benedict, a granddaughter, shelters family portraits from William
Cooper's time down to the present day--five generations. What stories
might it not tell of the attractive originals? Many were the letters that
Fenimore Cooper wrote from Europe to this sister, Mrs. George
Pomeroy, of the old stone house.
Mrs. Benedict has also placed there many souvenirs of her sister,
Constance Fenimore Woolson, gathered during-her long residence in
Europe, including the author's writing-table and her chair.
[Illustration: THE OLD STONE HOUSE.]
"Master Oliver Cory kept the village school" in those child-days of
Fenimore Cooper, and long after. "He was well qualified for that post;
laborious, upright, firm, yet patient and kindly by nature. His training
of the boys was excellent. Saturdays were given to religious lessons,
and he paid careful but quiet attention to their morals and manners."
From his sister Hannah's teaching Judge Cooper's youngest son went to
Master Cory's school. It was kept in "one of those tasteless buildings
that afflict all new countries," and here was called the "Academy." It
served Cooperstown in timely ways for religious and political meetings;
public courts were held here, and a ball was given now and then under

its roof. As to the school, time and incident brought out a taste for
music in the pupils of Master Cory. It seems that Judge Cooper had
brought from Philadelphia a large upright organ of imposing
appearance and power, which he placed in his manor-house hall. Its
arrival in the village made a summer's sensation. When put up and
adjusted, a rehearsal of country dances, reels, and more serious music
came floating through the broad door and ample windows of Otsego
Hall into Master Cory's domain, the Academy, which stood in the
adjoining street. As, with magic effect the strains of "Hail Columbia"
poured into the schoolroom, Master Cory skilfully met a moment of
open rebellion with these words: "Boys, that organ is a remarkable
instrument. You never heard the like of it before. I give you half an
hour's intermission. Go into the street and listen to the music!"
[Illustration: COOPERSTOWN PRIOR TO 1835.]
These "Academy boys" were ambitious; each annual exhibition was
crowded, to listen to the speeches "of Coriolanus, Iago, Brutus, and
Cassius" by "raw lads from the village and adjoining farms," in all the
bravery of local militia uniform--blue coats "faced with red, matross
swords, and hats of '76." On such an occasion James Cooper, then a
child of eight years, became the pride and admiration of Master Cory
for his moving recitation of the "Beggar's Petition"--acting the part of
an old man wrapped in a faded cloak and leaning over his staff. It is
recorded that James had the fine, healthy pie-appetite usual to his age,
for, says the record, when his eldest brother "was showing the sights of
New York to the youngest, he took him to a pasty-shop, and, after
watching the boy eat pasty after pasty, said to him: 'Jim, eat all you
want, but remember that each one costs the old man a lot.'" Pasty then
outbalanced property for "Jim."
In due time the lad outgrew the Academy's instruction, but from boy
to-man he never outgrew Master Cory's affection, nor his own for the
dear home scenes on the shores of the "Haunted Lake," which he was
so soon to leave for his first important schooling. The books he wrote
later tell how he never forgot the