Produced by Lisa Reigel, Curtis Weyant, Michael Zeug and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by Cornell University Digital Collections) Transcriber's Note: The majority of the illustrations for this text are photographs. Where there is a name listed inside the [Illustration:] tag, that is the name of the photographer. Below that is the caption of the photograph. [Illustration: _Joseph B. Slote_ COOPERSTOWN FROM THE NORTHWEST] THE STORY OF COOPERSTOWN BY RALPH BIRDSALL Rector of Christ Church _With Sixty-eight Illustrations from Photographs_ NEW YORK, CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 1925 Copyright, 1917, by RALPH BIRDSALL _First printing, July, 1917_ _Second printing, December, 1917_ _Third printing, August, 1920_ _Fourth printing, August, 1925_ * * * * * _Printed in the United States of America_ FOREWORD The ensuing narrative is a faithful record of life in Cooperstown from the earliest times, except that the persons and events to be described have been selected for their story-interest, to the exclusion of much that a history is expected to contain. The dull thread of village history has been followed only in such directions as served for stringing upon it and holding to the light the more shining gems of incident and personality to which it led. Trivial happenings have been included for the sake of some quaint, picturesque, or romantic quality. Much of importance has been omitted that declined to yield to such treatment as the writer had in view. The effort has been made to exclude everything that seemed unlikely to be of interest to the general reader. Those who seek family records, or the mention of all names worthy to be recorded in the history of the village, will find the book wanting. The local history has been already three times recorded, first in 1838 by Fenimore Cooper, whose work was brought down to date by S. T. Livermore in 1863, and by Samuel M. Shaw in 1886. While now out of print many copies of these books are still accessible. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE INDIANS 1 II. THE COMING OF THE WHITE MEN 26 III. A BYPATH OF THE REVOLUTION 51 IV. THE BEGINNING OF THE SETTLEMENT 74 V. A VILLAGE IN THE MAKING 89 VI. OLD-TIME LOVE AND RELIGION 109 VII. HOMES AND GOSSIP OF OTHER DAYS 130 VIII. THE PIONEER COURT ROOM 150 IX. FATHER NASH 163 X. THE IMMORTAL NATTY BUMPPO 174 XI. STRANGE TALES OF THE GALLOWS 192 XII. SOLID SURVIVALS 211 XIII. THE BIRTHPLACE OF BASE BALL 247