SOLID SURVIVALS
The property which now includes Edgewater was inherited by Isaac Cooper,
the second son of Judge Cooper, on the death of his father in 1809. In
the following year he began the erection of the house, which took nearly
four years in building. Aside from its now venerable aspect, this solid
residence, constructed of old-fashioned brick, preserves much of its
original appearance as one of the largest dwellings in the village. It
was modeled after a colonial residence in Philadelphia well known to the
Cooper family. The style of the entrance hall, with the balanced
symmetry of semicircular stairways that ascend to the upper floor, is
singularly effective, while the carved wood of the interior, as seen in
the doorcaps and mouldings, displays skillful workmanship. No house in
Cooperstown commands so fine a general view of Otsego Lake as that which
is to be seen from the porch of Edgewater. The surrounding ground
includes over two acres, and extends to the waters of the lake, although
now traversed by Lake Street, which made its way, by long usage, across
the original property. The house is approached through the paths of an
old time garden, thickly grown with shrubs, and shaded by a variety of
trees.
[Illustration: EDGEWATER]
Isaac Cooper had married Mary Ann, daughter of General Jacob Morris, of
Morris, Otsego county, and took possession of Edgewater as his residence
on December 4, 1813. It is not difficult to understand the feeling of
satisfaction, on being established in this beautiful home, which
prompted Isaac Cooper, at the age of thirty-two years, to record the
event in his diary thus:
Moved--where I hope to end my Days--and I pray Heaven to allow
this House and this Lot--whereon I this day brought my Family,
to descend to my children and to my children's children, and
may they increase in virtue and respectability, and become
worthy of the blessings of Heaven.
This diary is hardly more than a record of weather, with a single line
of "general observations," under which head, from day to day, he makes
brief mention of his doings, social engagements; births, marriages, and
deaths among his friends; his own frequent illnesses: occasionally he
moralizes, or indulges in a bit of self-criticism. A few entries
selected from Isaac Cooper's diary will show its general character. It
will be noticed that he refers to himself in the third person as "Mr.
C." or "Mr. Cooper."
August 20, 1814--New waggon paraded, to the admiration of the
villagers.
August 30--Quilting party at Mrs. Pomeroy's--very pleasant.
January 4, 1815--Cate, Mr. Prentiss married.
February 7--Time passes heavily! Good reason why!
August 8--Laid corner brick of Morrell's & Prentiss' House.
July 30, 1816--Tea Party at Mrs. Poms. Also a party on the
Lake. Major Prevost fell overboard.
October 5--Done quilting, thank fortune.
October 25--Mr. C. set out plum trees in back yard.
October 28--Mr. C. fell down stairs last night. Don't feel so
well for it.
November 13--Took in some pork.
November 16--Mr. Phinney played backgammon with Mrs. Cooper
this evening.
November 27--A Milliner arrived with an assortment of elegant
cheap hats. (Sold a twelve dollar one! I wonder who to?)
November 28--A mystery dissolved. Mrs. Starkweather was the
purchaser of the hat.
December 4--Mrs. Cooper's neck washed--good!
December 5--A dinner party at Mr. J. Cooper's.
December 13--Dipped 700 candles.
December 16--Wine and Brandy tap't. Head combed.
February 7, 1817--Tea Party--30 besides us, viz; Mr. and Mrs.
Campbell, the Miss Starrs, Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Pomeroys, Mr. and
Mrs. George Pomeroy, Mr. and Mrs. E. Phinney, Miss Tiffany,
Miss Talmage, Miss Shankland, the Misses Fuller, H. Phinney,
Mr. Aitchison, Mr. Lyman, Mr. Crafts, Mr. Stewart, Mr. and
Mrs. Morrell, Mr. and Mrs. Webb, Miss Edmonds, Miss Webb, Mrs.
Prentiss, Mrs. Dr. Webb, Mrs. Russell, Mrs. Williams.
February 17--72 loads of wood last week, making my supply for
1817, say 200 loads, exclusive of office.
February 22--Dr. Pomeroy, Mr. George Pomeroy, and Col. Seth
Pomeroy spent the eve. here.
April 1--A barrel of Pork, this day opened. Robins killed
yesterday by A. L. J., a _sin_.
May 9--Mr. Cooper feels for all mankind.
September 12--The Old Lady very ill.
September 13--Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper departed this life.
October 18--Mr. Gratz breakfasted here.
Concerning some settlements in the region, much has been written of the
spirit of democracy in which they were established, and it has been
pointed out that all social distinctions were levelled in the common
tasks of frontier life. It does not appear that this was the case in
Cooperstown. From the time of the first settlement, apparently, an
aristocratic group was formed in the orbit of the Cooper nucleus, and
social climbing began before the wolves and bears had been quite driven
from the forests of Otsego. The tea party of February 7, 1817, mentioned
in the diary, probably names most of those who were at that time
admitted to the inner circle of the socially elect; another entry, dated
December 31, 1816, relates to a different social sphere, and
unconsciously reveals the great gulf which had already been fixed
between the one and the other, together with the aristocrat's
supercilious astonishment that "that class of society" is in some
respects quite as desirable as his own:
This New Year's eve there was a ball at the Hotel (Col.
Henry's), a very decently conducted and a very respectable
assemblage of the worthy mechanics and that class of society.
I was present, and would not wish to see better conduct,
better dress, and better looking Ladies!!! There was perfect
neatness of dress, without as much Indian finery as I have
seen where they suppose they know better.
Another glimpse into the depth of the social gulf is obtained in the
back pages of Isaac Cooper's diary, where he records his accounts for
wages with the household servants. There is this entry, signed by the
humble cross-mark of Betsey Wallby, who "came to work on March 20, 1815,
at one dollar a week":
March 20, 1816--By one year's services, faithfully and orderly
performed--free from Yankee dignity, and ideas of
Liberty--which is insolence only. $52.00.
On New Year's day, 1818, death came to Isaac Cooper at Edgewater, and he
was laid at rest in Christ churchyard with the humblest pioneers of the
hamlet. Only for a little more than four years had he enjoyed the home
which he established at Edgewater.
In Isaac Cooper's diary, by another hand, these words were added:
September, 1823--Sold our house. Necessity compelled us.
Shortly before the house was vacated by the family of Isaac Cooper, the
garden of Edgewater was the scene of a pretty romance. Isaac Cooper's
second daughter, Elizabeth Fenimore, was a child of rare beauty, and as
she began to grow toward womanhood became renowned for wit and
loveliness. Strictly guarded by the conventional proprieties, Elizabeth
made glorious excursions into the realm of fancy, where errant knights
are ever in search of fair ladies to deliver them from castle dungeons.
Edgewater, with the freedom of its garden, was a pleasant sort of
prison, but Elizabeth was not less gratified when the knight of her
dreams actually appeared in the person of a young college student who
was spending his summer vacation in Cooperstown--Samuel Wootton Beall, a
native of Maryland. Summer evenings in Edgewater garden passed quickly
away, and there came a night of farewell, for on the next day young
Beall must return to his college, and to long months of Greek, Latin,
and mathematics. On that night the young man brought a Methodist
minister into the garden with him. There was a mysterious signal.
Elizabeth Fenimore Cooper glided out of the house, and joined the two in
darkness. They stood beneath the locust tree which rose just east of the
front steps, while in low voices the young lovers took their vows, and
the parson pronounced them man and wife. The bride immediately crept
back into the house, thrilling with her secret, while the bridegroom
went his way, and on the next day was gone.
Nothing was said of the wedding until Samuel Beall was graduated from
college, and returned to Cooperstown to claim his wife. Beyond the
extreme youth of the couple, there was really no objection to the match.
Mrs. Cooper was astonished at the announcement, but gave her blessing to
the union. Only one condition she exacted. Shocked at the informality of
their wedding, she required them to be remarried with the full rites of
the Church.
Young Beall and his wife went West, where he prospered, and, returning
to Cooperstown in 1836, purchased Woodside as their residence. After a
few years at Woodside, they settled once more in the West.
In Edgewater garden the locust that sheltered the secret marriage was
long known as the Bridal Tree, and grew to lofty size. In the winter of
1908 the first fall of snow came upon the wings of a great wind. During
the night the big locust fell crashing to the ground, and in the morning
was found covered with a mantle of virgin snow, gleaming white like a
bridal veil.
In 1828, Edgewater having passed into the hands of a company which had
organized to establish a seminary for girls, the house was rearranged
for such occupancy. The numerals which then marked the rooms of the
students are still to be seen on the doorways of the top floor. The
school was a financial failure, and in 1834 the trustees sold Edgewater
as a summer residence to Theodore Keese of New York, who, eight years
previously, had married the eldest daughter of George Pomeroy and Ann
Cooper, sister of Isaac Cooper. Thus the property came back into the
family of the original owner.
In 1836 Mr. and Mrs. Keese came to Cooperstown to live, and their
eight-year-old son, George Pomeroy Keese, then began a residence at
Edgewater that continued for seventy-four years. In 1849, at the age of
twenty-one years, he brought to Edgewater his bride, Caroline Adriance
Foote, a daughter of Surgeon Lyman Foote, of the United States Army. In
this house their eight children were born, and all of these, with the
exception of one who died in infancy, lived to celebrate the sixtieth
wedding anniversary which their parents commemorated with a notable
gathering of friends at Edgewater in the autumn of 1909. Living to old
age in perfect health of body and mind Mr. and Mrs. Keese made Edgewater
a famous centre of hospitality.
During this long residence in Cooperstown Pomeroy Keese stood in the
forefront of its affairs, and came to occupy a unique position in the
life of the village. In boyhood, as the grand-nephew of Fenimore Cooper,
he was brought into close contact with the novelist, and at the
beginning of the twentieth century was one of the few residents of the
village who distinctly recalled the famous writer's personality. He was
best known to the business world as president for nearly forty years of
the Second National Bank of Cooperstown, but the qualities that made him
so interesting a figure lay rather in the many avocations of his life.
He was senior warden of Christ Church at the time of his death, and had
been a member of its vestry for more than half a century. Of thirteen
successive rectors of Christ Church he had known all but Father Nash,
the first. For the old village church, surrounded with its quaint tombs
and overshadowing pines, he had a love that seemed about to call forth
the response of personality from things inanimate.
On the streets of Cooperstown, in his later years, G. Pomeroy Keese was
a picturesque and characteristic figure. His face seemed weather-beaten
rather than old; his eye was like that of a sailor, with a focus for
distant horizons; the style of thin side-whisker affected by a former
generation gave full play to every expression of his countenance. It was
a common sight, of a winter's day, to glimpse his slight and dapper
form with quick step ambling to the post-office, while, quite innocent
of overcoat, he compromised with the frosty air by clasping his hands,
one over the other, across his chest, as a means of keeping warm!
Pomeroy Keese was somewhat contemptuous toward mufflers, arctics, and
other toggery which Otsego winters imposed upon his neighbors. He seemed
immune against the assault of climatic rigors. His attitude toward the
weather was confidential, for he was the most weatherwise of men. He
kept a daily record of the weather, with accurate meteorological data,
for more than half a century, and for many years furnished the local
official figures for the United States weather bureau. From his
experience he originated the theory that, while seasons from year to
year appear to differ widely in their character, the temperature and
precipitation within the compass of each year actually reach the same
general average. It seemed to cause him real annoyance when a period of
weather departed too widely from the usual average, yet if a cold snap
or hot spell was generous enough to break all previous records his
enthusiasm was boundless.
An equally substantial though smaller house that antedated Edgewater by
a few years was erected in the summer of 1802 by John Miller as a farm
house. It was built of bricks, and was the second building in the place
that was not constructed of wood. It stands at the southwest corner of
Pine Street and Lake Street, facing the latter, and the dense evergreen
hedge which surrounds the house seems to hold it aloof from the later
growth of the village. It is said that the house is haunted, for not
long after it was built a tenant of the place murdered his wife by
smothering her with a pillow in her bedroom, and for many years it was
rumored that occupants of the house occasionally were terrified by
muffled sounds of moaning as of one in mortal agony.
[Illustration: _C. A. Schneider_
RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM H. AVERELL AND JUDGE PRENTISS]
The building referred to in Isaac Cooper's diary as "Morrell's and
Prentiss' house" includes the two brick houses on Main Street which
stand conjoined just east of the Village Club and Library. Judge
Morrell went West, and his house, the more westerly of the two, became
better known as the property of its later owner, William Holt Averell,
whose descendants continued to occupy it a century after him. The
adjoining house, built by Col. Prentiss, remained after his death in
possession of his family, and his daughter, Mrs. Charlotte Prentiss
Browning, lived to celebrate its centennial.
Col. John H. Prentiss, for more than half a century a resident, and for
forty years editor of the _Freeman's Journal_, was a notable figure in
Cooperstown. Under his editorial management the _Freeman's Journal_
became a strong political organ, and exercised an influence that made
Otsego one of the stanchest Democratic counties in the State of New
York. Col. Prentiss represented his district in Congress during the four
years of Van Buren's administration, having been reelected at the
expiration of his first term. It was at this time that his next door
neighbor, William Holt Averell, was a candidate for Congress on the Whig
ticket. The first returns indicated that Averell had been elected, and
there was a noisy demonstration by Averell's supporters in front of his
residence, bringing him forth for a speech which was received with great
enthusiasm. The returns came in slowly in those days, and a day or two
had passed before it was learned that Prentiss had been elected, and his
doorstep became the scene of another jubilation. According to the
recollections of some this seesawing of returns occurred more than once,
and the two neighbors, whose friendship was not interrupted by their
political antagonisms, each joined in the demonstration in honor of the
other.
A large part of the work of publishing his newspaper was done by Judge
Prentiss himself. Besides being sole editor, he attended to the
financial department, and for forty years, except while in Congress, he
gave his personal attention in the printing office to the mechanical
department. A later writer recalls often seeing Col. Prentiss in the
press-room, with coat off, sleeves rolled up, either inking the type
with two large soft balls, or pulling at the lever of the old Ramage
press. He describes him as "an industrious, energetic man, a little
inclined to aristocratic bearing, but open, frank and cordial with his
friends."
The last appearance of Col. Prentiss in public life, from which he had
previously kept aloof for several years, was as a delegate to the
Democratic State convention which was held in Albany on February 1,
1861. In that body of distinguished and able men, of which he was one of
the vice-presidents, he attracted much attention, and the question was
frequently asked by those in attendance, referring to Col. Prentiss,
"Who is that large, fine-looking old gentleman, with white, flowing
hair?"[94]
Colonel Prentiss's next door neighbor, William Holt Averell, son of
James Averell, Jr., was for more than half a century one of the most
prominent citizens of the village, who did more perhaps than any other
for its financial development. He was one of the first directors and for
many years president of the Otsego County Bank, the original of the
present First National Bank, and for which the building across the way
from his house, now used as the Clark Estate office, was erected in
1831. As he issued every day from the doorway of this building with its
portico of fluted columns, his figure was exactly such as the
imagination might now devise as most in harmony with the surroundings;
for in his youth Averell was extremely punctilious in his dress, being a
very handsome man, and for many years it was his custom to wear a white
beaver hat, and ruffled shirt, with ruffles at the cuffs that set off to
good advantage his small and delicate hands. He did all his reading and
work at night. Those who passed his windows at a late hour were sure to
glimpse him bending over his desk, and nobody else in Cooperstown went
to bed late enough to see his lamp extinguished, for the servants often
found him still at work when they came to summon him to breakfast in the
morning. He lived long enough to be regarded as a gentleman of the old
school, positive and dogmatic in his opinions, which were usually those
of a minority, but which he defended with the resourcefulness of a
brilliant and well-trained mind.
In 1813 Henry Phinney, one of the two sons of Elihu Phinney, began the
construction of the large brick house on Chestnut street now known as
"Willowbrook," and completed it three years later. In Cooper's
_Chronicles of Cooperstown_ several houses "of respectable dimensions
and of genteel finish" are mentioned as having been erected between the
years of 1820 and 1835. Among these is the house of Elihu Phinney, the
younger son of the pioneer, which still stands on Pioneer Street
opposite to the Universalist church. It is of brick, partly surrounded
by a veranda, and exquisite in many details of construction, much of the
interior woodwork being notable in excellence of chaste design.
During this same general period several houses of stone were erected
that still remain among the most solid and attractive in Cooperstown.
William Nichols built Greystone, the fine old residence that stands at
the southwest corner of Fair and Lake streets; Ellory Cory erected the
house on the west side of Pioneer Street near Lake Street; John Hannay
set a new standard for the western part of the village when he put up on
the north side of Main Street, not far from Chestnut Street, the
dignified residence now occupied by the Mohican Club. In 1827 the low
structures of stone which stand on the east side of Pioneer Street,
between Main and Church street, were erected; and in 1828 the
three-story stone building on the north side of Main Street, midway
between Pioneer and Chestnut streets, was an important addition to the
business section of the village.
[Illustration: _Forrest D. Coleman_
WOODSIDE HALL]
A country-house of classic poise and symmetry was designed in 1829, when
Eben B. Morehouse purchased a few acres from the Bowers estate, on the
side of Mount Vision, at the point where the old state road made its
first turn to ascend the mountain, and there erected the dwelling
called Woodside Hall. For many years an Indian wigwam stood on the site
now occupied by Woodside. This old stone house, set on the hillside
against a background of dense pine forest, has an air of singular
dignity and repose. Standing at the head of the ascending road which
continues the main street of the village, Woodside, with its row of
columns gleaming white amid the living green of the forest, may be seen
from almost any point along the main thoroughfare of Cooperstown. It is
approached from the highway by a rise of ground, where the Egyptian
gate-tower adds a fanciful interest to the entrance, with glimpses of
the terraced lawn and garden that climb toward the house. In summer, on
gaining the porch, one looks back upon a mass of foliage beneath which
Cooperstown lies concealed, except for a vista that traverses the length
of the village and rises to the pines that crown the hills beyond; while
a glance toward the north sweeps across the surface of the lake to its
western shore. The woods that come down almost to the house are composed
of pines and hemlocks of splendid proportions and great antiquity,
lending a shadowy atmosphere of mystery to the environs of Woodside
Hall.
The charm and grace of this residence seem to reflect certain qualities
in the character of Judge Eben B. Morehouse, who designed it as his
home. For he is described as a man of rare personality and unusual
culture, whose intellectual ability gave him exceptional rank in his
profession. He was district attorney in 1829, member of Assembly in
1831, and became a justice of the Supreme Court of the State in 1847.
Mrs. Morehouse, a daughter of Dr. Fuller, one of the pioneer physicians
of Cooperstown, was a woman of many social gifts, and established
traditions of hospitality and festivity at Woodside.
In 1836 Judge Morehouse suffered reverses of fortune, and when he had
sold Woodside to Samuel W. Beall, took up his residence in a modest
cottage in the village. It was said of Judge Morehouse that, during this
period, in walking about the village streets, he was careful never to
raise his eyes toward Woodside, and, if occasion brought him in the
vicinity of his old home, he passed it with averted face. After a few
years he was able, to his great joy, to buy Woodside back again, and he
continued residence there until his death in 1849.
[Illustration: _Walter C. Stokes_
THE GATE-TOWER AT WOODSIDE]
A President of the United States was once lost in the grounds of
Woodside. It was in 1839, when Judge Morehouse gave a large evening
reception for President Martin Van Buren. After the reception, when the
guests were departed, Mr. Van Buren and a friend who accompanied him
became separated from their companions, and lost their way in attempting
to find the gate-tower. For a long time they wandered and groped about
in the darkness of the grounds, finally returning to the house for a
guide and a lantern, just as the family were going to bed.
In 1856 Mrs. Morehouse sold Woodside to the Hon. Joseph L. White, whose
family entertained generously and delightfully. White was a
distinguished lawyer of New York, and one of the most famous stump
orators of his time. He became identified with the early days of the
Nicaragua Canal project. While at work on the isthmus he was killed by
the bullet of an assassin.
After the death of White, the place was bought by John F. Scott, whose
family were among the earliest settlers in Springfield at the head of
the lake.
In 1895 Woodside was purchased by Walter C. Stokes of New York. Mr. and
Mrs. Stokes, occupying Woodside as a summer home, gave it new
embellishment, and revived the traditions of its hospitality.
[Illustration: SWANSWICK]
At the extreme northwest margin of the lake there is a little cove, with
a landing, near which one ascends from the shore by means of a swaying
board walk over swampy ground, where flags and forget-me-nots bloom
luxuriantly during summer days, and fireflies hold carnival at night. At
the top of the slope stands "Swanswick," a cottage-like and rambling
house whose rear windows look down the lake, while the low veranda in
front opens upon a lawn and quiet lily-padded pond, a mill-pond
originally, for near at hand are the falls that operated Low's mills, in
the days of the pioneers. Swanswick stands upon the site of a house
erected in 1762, the first ever inhabited by a white man on the shore of
Otsego Lake. The present house was built after the Revolution by Colonel
Richard Cary, one of Washington's aides, and the place was called Rose
Lawn. General Washington was a guest here when he made his visit in
Otsego in 1783, and a ball was given in his honor. The daughter of the
house was Anne Low Cary who married Richard Cooper, and after his death
became the wife of George Hyde Clarke, who built Hyde Hall. She
inherited Rose Lawn from her mother, and gave it to her son, Alfred
Cooper Clarke. The latter was childless, and left the place to his
nephew, Leslie Pell, who belonged to the well known Pell family of New
York and Newport, and who assumed legally the name of Clarke.
Leslie Pell-Clarke married the charming Henrietta Temple, a cousin of
Henry James the novelist, and of William James, the psychologist. He
changed the name of the place to Swanswick, and lived there from the
early 'seventies until his death in 1904. The Pell-Clarkes made
Swanswick known as a haven of good cheer for miles around. The old
house, simple in its lines and modest in proportions, had an air of
singular distinction. The library in the west wing, with its curious
skylight, and bookcases well stocked with the classic favorites of an
English country gentleman, was a revelation to the connoisseur of old
volumes; and the whole house was full of quaintly delightful surprises.
It was the master of the house himself who gave to the place its
atmosphere. He was ideally the centre of things, especially when he sat
in the library reading aloud from some favorite author, which he did
always with perfect justice of expression, and in a voice of unrivalled
melody. He was a lover of outdoor life, and laid out on his own property
at the head of the lake the golf grounds now managed by the Otsego Golf
Club, the oldest links of any in America that have been maintained on
their original course. Mr. and Mrs. Pell-Clarke were reckoned and
beloved as partly belonging to Cooperstown, for they drove down from the
head of the lake almost daily, drawn by the whitish speckled horses,
Pepper and Salt, that everybody came to know. Pell-Clarke had the frame
and bearing of an athlete. Tall, with clean-cut features, he was one of
the handsomest men of his time, a noble and brilliant soul, an exuberant
and fascinating personality.
A country-seat that may be described as unique in all America, Hyde
Hall, lies nestled in the haunches of the Sleeping Lion, toward the head
of Otsego Lake. "The Sleeping Lion" is Cooperstown's nickname for Mount
Wellington, the wooded hill that stretches along the northern margin of
the Glimmerglass. The formal name was given to Mount Wellington by the
builder of Hyde Hall, in honor of his famous classmate at Eton, in
England. When this mountain is viewed from Cooperstown the aptness of
the more familiar, descriptive term--the Sleeping Lion--becomes evident.
In spite of its distance from the village, Hyde Hall has its place not
only in the view but in the story of Cooperstown, for its proprietors
have been closely associated with the life at the southern end of the
lake.
[Illustration: _J. W. Tucker_
SHADOW BROOK]
The grounds of Hyde Hall lie toward the head of Otsego, on the eastern
side, where Hyde Bay increases the width of the lake by a generous sweep
of rounded shore. Into this bay from the east flows Shadow Brook, the
most picturesque stream of water in the region, whose pellucid current
reflects clear images of foliage and sky, and offers a favorite resort,
in shaded nooks, to the drifting canoes of lovers. In a clearing of the
woods farther northward along the shore, and at a good elevation, stands
Hyde Hall, facing the southeast across the bay. It is massively
constructed of large blocks of stone, and seems designed for a race of
giants. The main part of the house, completed in 1815, is two stories
high, in the colonial style, and over two hundred feet in length. In
1832 the facade was added, in the Empire style, with two splendid rooms
on either side of a large entrance hall. The doorways and windows, as
well as the chambers into which they open, are planned on a big scale.
Solidity of construction appears throughout the building, where even the
partition walls are of brick or stone. The masons, carpenters, and
mechanics who built Hyde Hall lived on the premises while the house was
under construction. They quarried and cut the stone from adjacent beds
of local limestone; they burnt the brick from clay found at the foot of
the hill; they cut the timber in the neighboring forest, and
manufactured all the windows, doors, and panel-work.
The house commands a superb view of the lake, and is surrounded by
beautiful old trees and forest land. Upwards of three thousand acres
belonging to Hyde Hall enclose it on all sides, and the residence is
approached by three private roads averaging over a mile in length.
Within the house, as one tries to visualize its spirit, from Trumbull's
portrait of the Duke of Wellington, which stands above the fireplace in
the great drawing-room, through rambling passages with glimpses of a
courtyard and alcoves and wings; up curved stairways to landings that
present unexpected steps down and steps up; along halls that beckon amid
dim lights to unrevealed recesses of space; down through kitchens where
huge pots and cauldrons reflect the glow of living coals, while shadowy
outlines of spits and cranes are lifted amid a smoke of savory odors;
deeper down into the spacious wine-cellars darkly festooned with
cobwebs, and chill as the family burying-vault where vines and snakes
squirm through the bars of its iron gates beneath the hill,--out of
these fleeting impressions rises the atmosphere of an old-world
tradition strangely created amid the original wilds of Otsego at the
beginning of the nineteenth century. It is a house that should be
ashamed not to harbor romance, and mystery, and ghosts.
Hyde Hall has the air of an English country-seat, with squire and
tenantry, transplanted to the soil of an alien democracy. To comprehend
its place in the life of Cooperstown it must be regarded as the symbol
of certain ancestral traditions toward which good Americans are expected
to be indifferent. George Clarke, who was colonial governor of New York
from 1737 to 1744, came to America shortly after being graduated at
Oxford, having received an appointment to colonial office from Walpole,
then prime minister of England. He came from Swanswick, near Bath. After
a few years' residence in New York he met and married Anne Hyde, the
daughter of Edward Hyde, royal governor of North Carolina. She
subsequently became the heiress of Hyde, in England, in her own right,
and by the old English law of coverture, George Clarke became the owner
of the estate. The lady died during his term of office as governor of
the colony, and was buried, with a public funeral, in the vault of Lord
Cornburg in Trinity church, New York.
George Clarke, the builder of Hyde Hall on Otsego Lake, was a
great-grandson of the colonial governor, a part of whose large estate of
lands in America he inherited. He came to America in 1791, to comply
with the statute requiring all English born subjects who were minors
during the War for Independence, and who owned lands in this State
subject to confiscation, to become American citizens. After several
trips across the water George Clarke decided, in 1809, to make his abode
in the New World, and leaving his home, Hyde Hall, at Hyde, in Cheshire,
he came to America, married as his second wife Anne Cary, the widow of
Richard Cooper, brother of James Fenimore Cooper, and in 1813 began the
building of his new Hyde Hall.
The property originally controlled from Hyde Hall was of vast extent. At
an early day George Clarke encountered much opposition from his
tenantry. The tenure by which they held their lands was not in
accordance with the views of American settlers. The estates were leased
out, some as durable leases, at a small rent, and others for three
lives, or twenty-one years. The settlers disliked the relation of
landlord and tenant, and Clarke was frequently annoyed by demands which
his high English notions of strict right would not allow him to concede.
His prejudices were strong, and if he believed anyone intended to wrong
him, he was stubborn in resisting any invasion of his rights. Hence
there were many collisions between landlord and tenant in the early days
of Hyde Hall. The warm aspect of his nature, which disarmed the enmities
of tenants, appeared in his social qualities. He was companionable, gave
good dinners, conversed well, told a good story, delighted in a good
one from others, and when in a gay mood would sing an excellent song,
generally one that he had brought with him from Merrie England.
In his habits and sentiments Clarke was thoroughly English. He delighted
to have his dinner got up in old English style, with the best of roast
beef and mutton, garnished with such delicacies as the lake and country
afforded, and just such as his countrymen, who knew how to appreciate
good things, would order, were they the caterers; and in these
particulars he hardly ever failed to excel. Not only were his household
arrangements in this style, but he was English in his religious views;
unless those matters were held in conformity to the Anglican Church they
were not acceptable.
When Clarke's son George, who afterward succeeded to the estate, was
baptized, in 1824, Father Nash officiated, and several other clergymen
of the Episcopal Church were in attendance, besides some guests from
Utica, and many from Cooperstown and the surrounding country who had
come to Hyde Hall for the occasion. The christening was performed with
suitable gravity, and in due time the dinner was announced, which was in
the substantial excellent style that Clarke knew well how to order for
such a festivity. The host was talkative and charming; as the dinner
proceeded the guests became increasingly good-humored, exceedingly well
satisfied with him and with themselves. "In due time the ladies and
clergy retired," says Levi Beardsley,[95] who was present at the feast,
"and then the guests were effectually plied with creature comforts."
[Illustration: HYDE HALL]
Nothing seemed more delightful to the first proprietor of Hyde Hall than
thus to sit in company with congenial men at the flowing bowl; to begin
in the enjoyment of rational conversation; to discuss literature and art
and statecraft; to warm up to the telling of rare stories and the
singing of good songs; and, in the end, to get his guests, or a portion
of them, "under the table." On this occasion, after partaking of the
viands and good cheer, the guests left the table in the early part of
the evening, and repaired to the plateau in front of the house, where
some of them ran foot-races in the dark, with no great credit to
themselves as pedestrians. As they were going back into the house, one
of the guests stumbled and fell into the hall, where he lay for some
time, obstructing the closing of the outer door. One of the servants
came to Clarke, who had retired for the night, and asked what he should
do with the large gentleman who had fallen in the doorway, and was
unable to rise. "Drag him in, and put him under the table" was the order
which was immediately complied with, and under the table the fallen
guest remained until morning.
The builder of Hyde Hall died in 1835, and his only American born son,
George Clarke, succeeded him in his American estate, thus becoming at
the age of twenty-one years the largest landed proprietor in the State
of New York. The patents which he held included 1,000 acres in Fulton
county, 6,000 acres in Dutchess county, 7,000 acres in Oneida, 12,000 in
Montgomery, besides 16,000 acres in Otsego county, and a valuable tract
in Greene county including one-half of the village of Catskill. George
Clarke married Anna Maria Gregory, daughter of Dudley S. Gregory, the
wealthiest man in Jersey City, and their married life was begun in great
prosperity, with a town house on Fifth Avenue in New York, in addition
to the country-seat on Otsego Lake.
Clarke had three span of fast horses, and was a familiar figure in
Cooperstown when he drove to service at Christ Church every Sunday, and
frequently came to the village for the transaction of business, or to
meet his friends, making nothing of the seven mile drive from his home.
In his younger days Clarke was quite celebrated as a beau and dandy, and
at one time was said to be the best dressed man in New York; but in his
later years he became notorious for his carelessness of attire, and few
of his tenants wore a cheaper costume. In this matter he was indifferent
to public opinion, and went about looking like an old-fashioned farmer.
In winter he covered himself with a buffalo coat that had areas of bare
hide worn through the fur; in summer his favorite habiliment was a linen
duster. For Fifth Avenue in New York he dressed in the same clothes that
served him in Cooperstown. When his friends ventured to remonstrate, he
put them off by saying that dress was a matter of indifference alike in
city or country. "In Cooperstown," said he, "everybody knows me; in New
York nobody knows me." When he had become accustomed to a suit of
clothes, he was as loath to change them as to alter his friendships or
politics. As he was plain in dress, so he was simple and abstemious in
habits of life. His bare living probably cost as little as that of any
working-man in the country.
George Clarke had an insatiable land-hunger. In looking after his wide
estates he allowed the Hyde Hall Property to become dilapidated, and
mortgaged the land that he owned to buy more. His land gave him great
yields of hops at the height of that industry in Otsego, but he was
always inclined to buy more hops rather than to sell. Little by little,
mortgages were foreclosed; Hyde Hall fell into decay; and in 1889 George
Clarke died insolvent.
Mrs. Clarke, in her youth, was said to be one of the most beautiful
women of her day. Those who knew her in later years can testify to an
abiding charm of personality which time could never efface. Hyde Hall in
summer she loved, but always the most perfect place in the world to her
was Monte Carlo, and there for many years she passed the winter,
becoming at last the oldest member of the American colony, having
crossed the ocean thirty times from America to Southern France. An old
lady tireless of life and all its activities, sprightly in manner,
brilliant in conversation, graceful in gesture, gay in dress, decked in
jewelry that scintillated with her quick motions, shod in tiny,
high-heeled slippers that clicked the measure of an alert step, and
sometimes permitted a flash of bright silk stockings; a lover of life
and gaiety and beauty to whom Monte Carlo seemed the most homelike spot
on earth--her reign as mistress in her younger days gave a color of its
own to the story of Hyde Hall.
When George Clarke died in 1889, his son, George Hyde Clarke, having
been graduated at the Columbia Law School, had for several years made
his home at Hyde Hall, and had restored the place to something like its
original condition. He married Mary Gale Carter, granddaughter of
William Holt Averell of Cooperstown, and it was through her inheritance
that the old home was saved to the family.
Hyde Clarke inherited some of the English traditions of his grandfather.
He was sent to England at the age of fourteen years, and educated at the
famous Harrow school. In spite of his later devotion to legal studies,
and his admission to the bar of the State of New York, his real tastes
inclined to agriculture. Having been trained as a scholar, he added
farming to his accomplishments, and when he settled down at Hyde Hall it
was as a son of the soil. For the rest of his life, being at once a
gentleman and a farmer, he was the better in both characters for being
so much in each. The combination of birth and practical aptitude gave
him a position quite unique in Cooperstown and the surrounding country.
He was a man of wide reading and culture, an exceedingly good talker,
and a delightful social companion. He was at the same time respected as
a farmer among farmers, who knew him well, and called him by his
Christian name. It is related that shortly after her marriage to Hyde
Clarke, the stately and distinguished Mrs. Clarke was complaining to her
butcher in Cooperstown that he had sent her poor meat. "Very sorry, Mrs.
Clarke," replied the butcher "but 'twas one of Hyde's own critters!"
[Illustration: HYDE CLARKE
From the portrait by Ellen G. Emmet]
Hyde Clarke had certain mannerisms that added interest to his
personality. He would sometimes sit silent in company, without the
slightest effort to contribute to the conversation; but when he chose to
talk, he talked well and informingly, and it was a delight to hear him.
In a voice well-modulated and even, he selected his words with care,
sometimes pausing for the precise expression, which he brought out with
a quiet emphasis that made its exactness impressive. Repeatedly in
conversation he seemed about to smile, or there was a movement behind
the drooping moustache and in the eyes that suggested merriment, which
quickly disappeared when one began to smile in return, leaving one with
a foolish sense of having smiled at nothing. His deliberation of speech
was significant of his carefulness of thought and judgment, and he was
always leisurely in action. If he invited a guest to dine with him at
seven o'clock, he was quite likely himself not to reach home until
seven-thirty. A tall, calm man, he had the "British stare" to
perfection, which in him was not an affectation, but arose from an
entire lack of self-consciousness, and from moments of
absent-mindedness. He could stare one out of countenance without
intending rudeness; he could ignore the social amenities when he chose,
without giving offense; while he was the only man in Otsego who could
enter a lady's drawing-room in farming togs and with a hat on, without
seeming less than well-bred.
His arrival at the services of Christ Church on the Sunday mornings of
winter became characteristic. Always late for the service, and often
coming in after the sermon had begun, he walked deliberately forward up
the main alley, clad in the great fur coat which had served him for the
cold drive from Hyde Hall. Arrived at his pew, the front one at the
left, he would stand there while he slowly removed his coat, meantime
gazing curiously at the preacher, as if wondering what the text might
have been. Still standing, his hand described circles over his head
while he unreeled the long muffler wrapped about his throat. Then,
turning about, he would give a wide stare at the congregation, produce
his handkerchief, and with a trumpet-blast sit down to compose himself
for the rest of the sermon.
Hyde Clarke was exactly the man to have lived in what Levi Beardsley
called the "Baronial establishment" of Hyde Hall, amid broad acres of
wooded hill, and farm, and pasture. Besides being a practical farmer and
hop-grower, he was a leader among politicians of the better sort in the
Democratic party of the county and State. Through many avenues of
interest he reached all sides of life, and gained experiences that saved
his culture from dilettanteism, and made him a man among men, a true
democrat. In his judgments of men, he was big enough to overlook the
little imperfections that often conceal a fundamental soundness of
character; he saw the good in all, and spoke evil of none. He had
friendships among people of all sorts and conditions. Nor did he limit
his friendship to the human race; he knew horses and cows and dogs. He
loved all moods of nature, and faced all kinds of weather.
Hyde Hall, in the first century of its existence, measured the lives of
three men, passing from father to son, and leaving its traditions to the
great-grandson of the builder, another George Hyde Clarke, who, in 1915,
married Emily Borie Ryerson, a daughter of Arthur Ryerson of Chicago, a
gentleman affectionately remembered as the host of "Ringwood" at the
head of the lake, and mourned for his untimely death at sea, in the loss
of the _Titanic_.
[Illustration: A WEDDING-DAY AT HYDE]
Hyde Hall is at its best as the centre of a function, crowded with
guests, buzzing with conversation, while the company overflows from the
house to the lawn, presenting a kaleidoscope of color in the shifting
throng that moves to and fro in the spacious foreground of the venerable
mansion. There are those to whom one scene stands out as typical of Hyde
Hall in its glory: a brilliant autumn afternoon in 1907, the wedding day
of the daughter of the house; a picturesque concourse of wedding guests
upon the lawn before the doorway; a sudden lifting of all eyes to the
balcony above the portico, where the bride appears, clad in her wedding
gown, stands radiant, with her bridal bouquet poised aloft, and flings
it to the bridesmaids grouped below.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 94: _History of Otsego County_, 1877, p. 285.]
[Footnote 95: _Reminiscences_, from which the description of Clarke is
taken.]