FORT WILLIAM HENRY ON LAKE GEORGE
Originally named Lac du Saint-Sacrement by the French in the 17th century, the 32 mile long glacial lake was renamed Lake George in 1755, as building commenced for Fort William Henry at the beginning of the French and Indian War.
Two years later, the French and Native Americans descended on the British fort.
Two years later Native Americans joined French forces to massacre those at Fort William Henry, forever immortalized in James Fennimore Cooper’s, The Last of the Mohicans.
Cooper’s boyhood town is Cooperstown, 102 miles from Fort William Henry, which we visited on our 2004 trip.
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
Born outside Philadelphia,in 1754, William Cooper was raised as a Quaker.
Initially trained as a wheelwright, he relocated to Burlington, New Jersey, a Quaker town, where he married another Quaker, Elizabeth Fenimore, and eventually became a shopkeeper.
In 1785, Cooper purchased at public auction 10,000 acres on the western frontier, 50 miles west of Albany, New York.
Inspired by his home of Burlington, New Jersey, Cooper established a small village in 1786, at the foot of Otsego Lake from which the headwaters of the Susquehanna River flow.
The Cooper family relocated here after the birth of their newest son, James Fenimore Cooper, on September 15, 1789.
Soon after his appointment as the county’s first judge, William served two terms in Congress at the end of the 18th century.
Meanwhile William built a home at the southern tip of Otsego Lake for his growing family, named Otsego Hall.
It was known as: the noblest mansion west of Albany.
While growing up, James interacted on rare occasions with members of the Oneida who occupied the land surrounding Otsego Lake.
At age 10 James studied under a minister in preparation for admission to Yale University in 1802 at age 13. However tomfoolery did him in when James locked a donkey in one of the college’s rooms and blew up a student’s door.
Expelled from Yale, James became a common sailor at age 17 in 1806, where he witnessed the British impressment of fellow shipmates during the Napoleonic wars.
Lingering memories of the tyranny caused him to seek a uniquely American voice in literature.
After proving himself, James fulfilled a boyhood dream while receiving a commission as a midshipman in the US Navy, with his father’s congressional influence.
After his father’s death in 1809, the thriving Village of Otsego was renamed Cooperstown.
When the excitement of sea life turned to the doldrums, James left the Navy in 1810.
Soon meeting a special young lady, they quickly married and had several children.
LAST OF THE MOHICANS
Inspired by a book he read to his wife, James submitted the manuscript for his first novel published in 1820, Precaution, inspired by the style of Jane Austen.
His second published novel (1821), The Spy, was inspired by his friend, John Jay and set in the western frontier of New York.
Although the first book received some interest, the second became popular worldwide, the first for an American author.
Continuing with the theme of the western frontier, James found success with the Leatherstocking series, which debuted in 1823.
While visiting the Adirondacks in 1825 to the Catskills, Glens Falls, and Lake George, James and his British friends entered a cave.
While inside the cave one of the men suggested: here was the very scene for a romance.
Inspired, Cooper wrote The Last of the Mohicans in four months, published in 1826.
Liking neither of the historic names for the lake upon which Fort William Henry sits, James called it Horican, after a group of Indians that once lived nearby.
FRIENDS WITH LAFAYETTE
James prepared for the arrival of America’s friend and hero, Lafayette, on his grand tour of America in 1824, by officially working on New York’s welcoming committee.
Two years later James moved his family to Europe where they lived in various places such as England, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and France.
While providing his children a better education in the different parts of Europe, Cooper met his other goal of broadening his experience for his writing.
In Paris, James befriended Lafayette as well as Samuel Morse, who had painted Lafayette’s portrait.
When Lafayette passed away in 1834, James remembered America’s hero who: dedicated youth, person, and fortune, to the principles of liberty.
RESTORING OTSEGO HALL
A few weeks after Lafayette’s death, the Cooper family returned to Cooperstown, New York, where they found the family estate of Otsego Hall in ruins.
Immediately James began restoring the family home with the help of his friend, the artistic Samuel Morse, who designed towers to adorn the front and eastern sides of the house.
Living out his years at Otsego Hall, James passed away in 1851.
A few years later the house burned down and the property was sold.
His daughter, Susan, who had become an author with the help of her father, built her own home from rescued remnants of the home.
Our 2004 trip to Cooperstown
In 2004, our trip to Cooperstown focused on the National Baseball Hall of Fame, made famous (to me and my kids) by the movie A League of their Own.
Although beguiled by all the James Fenimore Cooper sites, I thought my young children would glean more from the baseball museum.
However on our next trip in 2010, we paid homage to James Fenimore Cooper by a trip to Fort William Henry, which my kids had studied about in homeschool.
However I’m hoping for another trip to Cooperstown to see the Cooper sites.
Loving ruins, I’m especially excited about a return trip to the land where the baseball museum is located, the site of the former Otsego Hall, where a statue memorializes James Fenimore Cooper, a short distance from the Otsego Lake that Cooper called Glimmerglass in The Leatherstocking Tales.
