Page 49. OTSEGO. Area 32,141 Acres. Population 4,497. Otsego is the oldest township in the county. It was organized as a part of Montgomer county in 1788, and included nearly all that portion of the resent county west of Otsego Lake and the Susquehanna river, which rises therein. Its surface consists mainly of a hilly upland, divided into ridges by Fly and Oaks creeks. The first white man who passed through this region was Cadwallader Colden, surveyor general, in the year 1737. Sixteen years later, in 1753, Rev. Gideon Hawley was sent to this localtity as a missionary to the Indians. The next noted visitor was Gen. George Washington, who passed through on an exploring expedition in 1783, and "viewed the Lake Otsego at the source of the Susquehanna." The Indian wars of the Revolutionary period desolated this whole region, but with the return of peace a tide of emigration set in, and the portion now known as Otsego township was especially attractive. The influx of settlers dates from 1788. Among the first were William and Asel Jarvis, who became prominent citizens. William was a physician and Asel erected at Fly Creek, in 1813, the first foundry and machine shop. His three sons, Chester, Dwight and Kent, were leading men and active in the old military organizations. Other early settlers at Fly Creek were John Adams, Ebenezer Cheeney and Oliver Bates. In 1788 came also George Scoot from Yorkshire, England, and about the same time John Patton from Perthshire, Scotland. Other pioneers were Abner Pier, for whom Pierstown was named, and Major George Pier, a celebrated musician. Hon. Isaac Williams came in 1793. He occupied various important offices. In 1813, 1817 and 1823 he represented his district in congress. Darius Warren came here from Connecticut in 1788 and was the first man who received deed of land from Judge William Cooper. Erastus Taylor came from Bennington, VT, and raised a family notable for longevity. Other early settlers whose names have been perpetuated in this vicinity are George Roberts, Ira Tanner, Jesse Teft, Norman and Bingham Babcock, Martin Coates, Reuben Hinds, Platt St.John, Andrew Scribner, Levi Pierce, John Badger, Russell Williams, John Baldwin and Eleazur Loomis. VILLAGES: There are four villages in this township, viz.: Cooperstown (population 2,368), Fly Creek (population 238), Oaksville (population 149), and Hope Factory (population 130). Snowdon and Bourne are rural postoffices. SCHOOLS: Number of school districts 18, number of teachers 32, children of school age 803. CHURCHES: There are ten churches in this township, viz.: At Cooperstown, Baptist, Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Universalist. At Fly Creek, Methodist, Presbyterian and Universalist. In the Hinds neighborhood north of Fly Creek, Methodist. NEWSPAPERS: Freeman's Journal, Otsego Farmer, and Otsego Republican, all published at Cooperstown. COOPERSTOWN. Cooperstown was founded by Judge William Cooper, the father of J. Fenimore Cooper, who in 1785 purchased from Colonel George Croghan (who had purchased it from the Indians) a tract of 100,00 acres of land lying on the west side of the river and embracing the site of the present village and extending both north and south of it. He purchased this land before seeing it, but in the fall of the same year, he came with a party of surveyors, and in January, 1786, took formal possession of his property, afterwards known as the "Cooper patent." William Ellison, a surveyor, came the same year, and in 1788, under Mr. Cooper's direction, he laid out the village. In 1789, a large house having been built for them, Mr. Cooper brought his family from Burlington, N.J., their former home. The youngest member of this family was James, aged two years. The name Fenimore, the mother's maiden name, was later added by himself. This child was destined to become the most famous of America novelists and the place to which he thus came to be famous as the scene of his romantic tales. The following is from a graphic description of Judge Cooper's arrival written in 1871 by G. Pomeroy Keese esq. of Cooperstown: "One bright October afternoon eighty years ago, as the sun was drawing lengthened shadows over the landscape, bathing in rich autumnal light the hills which surround the limid waters of Otsego Lake, there came around the base of Mount Vision a lumbering family coach, bearing, with its attenant vehicles, the founder of Cooperstown and his household to their new home. All the glorious beautites of the changing foliage which have since charmed so many thousands who have visited this still rural retreat, were in their virgin splendor, and as the new comers looked upon the scene and beheld in the reflection of the lake below the dark shades of the evergreens contrasted with the gold and crimson hues of the maple and the beech, they must have been sadly insensible to the chief attraction of their future abode if they failed to see in it one of the most perfect combinations of hill and valley, lake and forest, which the hand of painter could portray. The party, numbering fifteen in all, with the family domestics, was an imposing cavalcade in this primitive region just emerging from the wilderness...The whole population of the place--thirty-five in all--were drawn up to receive the "lord of the manor," who, from henceforth, as the first judge of the county and its largest landed proprietor, became the leading spirit of all that region." The village thus began more than a century ago, although of slow growth, has always prospered and kept pace with modern progress. Its streets are broad and well kept; its driveways along the lake and river delightful, and its camping and boating facilities unsurpassed. It has an electric lighting plant, is supplied with pure water, and its spacious hotels and swellings invite summer guests, of whom a great number are received every season. The work of the public authorities has been generously supplemented by Mrs. Alfred Corning Clark, a distinguished resident, to whom the place is indebted for a beautiful park and gymnasium, and for the splendid edifice of the Young Men's Christian Association. To its natural beauty of situation and its advantages as a summer resort, Cooperstown add the romantic interest that is associated with the "Leatherstocking Tales." Cooper excelled in his descriptions of natural scenery, and the reader who bears his vivid pictures in mind will easily recognize the localities along the lake made classic by his genius. Cooperstown has been at times the permanent or summer home of some famous men, among whom, beside the great novelist, are Samuel F.B. Morse,Thurlow Weed, Gen. John A. Dix, Abner Doubleday, Gen. George C. Starkweather, Hon. Samuel Nelson, Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and Col. William L. Stone, editor of the New York Commerical Advertiser. The Otsego County Agricultural Society holds an annual fair at Cooperstown, which is largely attended. Important benevolent institutions at Cooperstown are the "Thanksgiving Hospital," in the establishment of which Miss Susan Fenimore Cooper, a daughter of the novelist, was largely instrumental, and the "Orphan House of the Holy Savior," which is under the control of the Episcopal diocese of Albany, but which receives inmates regardless of denominational lines. THE COOPERSTOWN HIGH SCHOOL. This institution is fully equipped for thorough instruction. It is supplied with all needed apparatus, and with a library of 4,000 volumes. The academic department, under the Regents, prepares for college and for law and other special courses. The faculty consists of a principal and eleven assistants. COOPER'S GRAVE AND MONUMENT. James Fenimore Cooper died at his home in Cooperstown on the 14th of September, 1851, at the age of sixty-two years. Cooper sleeps in the churchyard beside his kindred, an unpretending slab marking the site of his grave. His monument is at Lakewood cemetery, on the eastern shore of the lake, just beyond the site of the panther scene in the "Pioneer." It is of Italian marble, twenty-five feet high, with a figure of Leatherstocking on the summit. Natty is represented as loading his rifle and gazing off on the lake spread out beneath him, while his dog by his side watches his master with eager interest. Transcribed by Karen Flanders Eddy. KARENE1@webtv.net |