In 1796 Judge Cooper commenced the construction of his new residence, Otsego Hall, which he completed and began to occupy, in June, 1799. The new house stood near the centre of what are now known as the Cooper Grounds, on the site marked by the statue of the Indian Hunter. Otsego Hall was for many years the largest private residence in the newer parts of the State, and remained as the finest building in the village until it was destroyed by fire in 1852. It is said to have been originally of the exact proportions of the van Rensselaer Manor House at Albany, where Judge Cooper was a frequent visitor. On one occasion, in early days, when Judge Cooper was away from home, fire broke out in the Hall, and an alarm given by the neighbors brought the volunteer fire department to the scene. Mrs. Cooper firmly took charge of the situation. Locking the doors of the house she called out to the servants, "You look out for the fire, and I'll attend to the fire department!" With this she poured hot water from a second-story window upon the firemen, and quickly drove them away. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 61: "The Bold Dragoon" of Fenimore Cooper's novel, _The Pioneers_.] [Footnote 62: The original of Richard Jones, in _The Pioneers_.] [Footnote 63: Plough-Jogger was the pseudonym of Jedediah Peck.] [Footnote 64: _Address at Cooperstown Centennial_, Walter H. Bunn.] [Footnote 65: _Reminiscences_, Levi Beardsley, p. 89.] [Footnote 66: Beardsley's _Reminiscences_.] [Footnote 67: _Chronicles of Cooperstown_.] [Footnote 68: _James Fenimore Cooper_, Mary E. Phillips, p. 26. The organ is now at Fynmere.] CHAPTER VI OLD-TIME LOVE AND RELIGION Enough has been recorded to show the general character of Cooperstown as it existed at the close of the eighteenth century. A more intimate view of its life at this period is suggested by a package of faded letters, some of which are here printed, not as supplying historical data, for in this they are quite lacking, but because whoever reads them with imagination begins to breathe the atmosphere of the time of their writing, and in the charm of their feminine confidences discovers a side of frontier life that is not otherwise revealed.