In the history of Western New York Father Nash of Otsego deserves a place of honor among the foremost pioneers. Wherever the most adventurous men were found pushing westward the frontier of civilization, there was Father Nash, uplifting the standard of the Church. Not only had he courage and energy; he displayed remarkable foresight in his manner of laying foundations. Of the Episcopal churches in the Otsego region the greater number were established by him, and most of them flourish at the present time. "No Otsego pioneer deserves honor more," says Halsey, in _The Old New York Frontier_, "not the road builder or leveler of forests, not the men who fought against Brant and the Tories. To none of these, in so large a degree, can we apply with such full measure of truth the sayings that no man liveth himself, and that his works do follow him." FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 82: _Lives of Phelps and Nash_, John N. Norton.] [Footnote 83: _History of Zion Church Parish, Morris_, by Katherine M. Sanderson, p. 6.] [Footnote 84: _Historic Records of Christ Church, Cooperstown_, G. Pomeroy Keese.] [Footnote 85: Reports of Rev. Daniel Nash to New York Convention, 1803-1827.] [Footnote 86: For The Otsego Nash see Reports of Daniel Nash to New York Conventions. For the other see _Memoirs of Rev. Charles G. Finney_, New York, A. S. Barnes and Co., 1876, pp. 52, 70, 117.] [Footnote 87: Finney, _Memoirs_, p. 70.] [Footnote 88: _Bishop Chase's Reminiscences_, Vol. I, p. 33.] [Footnote 89: _Reminiscences_, Levi Beardsley, p. 42.] [Footnote 90: _The Church Review_, New Haven, October, 1848, p. 398.] CHAPTER X THE IMMORTAL NATTY BUMPPO In the opinion of Sainte-Beuve, Fenimore Cooper possessed the "creative faculty which brings into the world new characters, and by virtue of which Rabelais produced Panurge, Le Sage Gil-Blas, and Richardson Pamela." Thackeray, praising the heroes of Scott's creation, expressed an equal liking for Cooper's, adding that "perhaps Leather-Stocking is better than any one in Scott's lot. La Longue Carabine is one of the great prize-men of fiction. He ranks with your Uncle Toby, Sir Roger de Coverley, Falstaff--heroic figures all, American or British; and the artist has deserved well of his country who devised him." Thackeray proved the sincerity of his admiration when he borrowed a hint from the noble death-scene of Leather-Stocking in _The Prairie_, and adapted it to describe the passing of Colonel Newcome.