FROM APPLE HILL TO FERNLEIGH
Cooperstown had its representation in the Civil War, for, aside from the
soldiers who enlisted from the village, it was a former schoolboy of
Apple Hill, Captain Abner Doubleday, in command of the batteries at Fort
Sumter, who aimed the first big gun fired in defence of the Union.
Another officer from Cooperstown, Lieut. Marmaduke Cooper, died at
Fortress Monroe; a third, Lieut. Morris Foote, was taken prisoner, and
escaped, with thrilling experiences, from a detention camp in South
Carolina; while his brother, Lieut. Frank Foote, lost a leg in the
battle of the Wilderness, for three months was mourned as dead by his
family, and had the pleasure, on his return to Cooperstown, of reading
his own obituary.
Among the citizens who stayed at home during the war were some who did
much to stir up Union sentiment in Cooperstown, where the political
opinions of not a few had taken the form of opposition to the Northern
cause. Among these enthusiasts was John Worthington, who was cashier in
the bank established by his father, John R. Worthington, in a building
which stood on the north side of Main Street not far west of Fair
Street. There were then two divisions of the Democratic party, known as
"War Democrats" and "Peace Democrats." The motto of the latter, as
applied to the Southern States, was "Erring sisters, go in peace." This
was too much for Worthington, who caused a large banner to be stretched
across the entire front of the Worthington Bank, surmounted by the Stars
and Stripes, and the words, "Victory will bring Peace."
Worthington had a strong spirit of adventure in his composition, and,
just before the war, had astonished the village by one of his
characteristic exploits. In July a traveling aeronaut had appeared on
the Fair Grounds, which were then in the region of the village south of
Christ Church, proposing to make a series of flights for the
entertainment of the public. He had an enormous balloon which was
floated by being filled with heated air and smoke. The first ascension
was a great success, and the aeronaut landed safely beyond the top of
Mount Vision. When the next flight was to be made, just as the inflation
was completed, John Worthington stepped out of the crowd, and asked to
take the place of the aeronaut, who readily consented. There was a
southerly breeze, and the balloon, as it sailed over the village, barely
escaped the top of Christ Church spire. It then rose straight upward
and, as the air within it cooled, began rapidly to descend. By a strange
coincidence the balloon dropped in the main street, within a short
distance of the Worthington Bank, at the very moment when its
proprietor was descending the steps. The street was agog at the sudden
appearance of the balloon, but none was more amazed than the elder
Worthington when he saw his own son extricating himself from the folds
of smoking cloth.
"John," he called out in astonishment, "Did you go up in that balloon?"
"I came down in it," said John, and would admit no more.
John Worthington was many years afterward included as a belated member
of the Shakespeare Reading Club, an organization which began in 1877,
and held regular meetings, with reading of the plays and of original
papers by the members, during a period of thirty years. This
organization, with the Cooperstown Literary Association, kept up the
intellectual traditions of the village during the latter part of the
nineteenth century.
The Shakespeare Club included the choice minds of the town, and the
study of the master poet was undertaken with becoming reverence. While
Worthington's sisters were already members of the club, and Worthington
himself was second to none in the village in keenness of literary
appreciation, he was notorious for eccentricities of whimsical wit and
humor, and it was only after long deliberation that it was finally
decided to elect him to membership. His first appearance at a meeting of
the club gave rise to an unforeseen situation, for the order in which
the members sat about the table had become fixed by traditions of
precedence, and the attempt to place another chair caused a flutter of
debate in politely subdued voices. Worthington was kept standing while
this discussion was going on, and suddenly astounded the company by
gravely seating himself upon the floor.
John Worthington was appointed United States consul in Malta under
President Arthur, and continued in office under Cleveland's first
administration. This was the heyday of his life. In Malta he made
friends in the army and navy and diplomatic service of many nations. His
conversational gifts and capricious drollery gave him great social
popularity in the brilliant shifting throng that passed through the
gates of the Mediterranean, and his wife, who was Cora Lull, of New
Berlin, was charmingly adapted by nature and acquirements to the graces
of diplomatic life. During his term of service at Malta in 1883
Worthington was instrumental in removing the body of John Howard Payne,
author of "Home, Sweet Home," from the cemetery in Carthage, Tunis, to
the United States. He made a stubborn effort to procure a band to play
Payne's song as the remains left Tunis aboard the ship homeward bound,
but not anyone could play "Home, Sweet Home," although Worthington had
brought the notes with him. However, after the disinterment, of which
Worthington was a witness, the body was placed in the chapel of the
little English church, and a few Americans and English reverently
gathered there, while Mrs. Worthington, who was known as "Cooperstown's
sweetest singer," sang touchingly the famous song of home, written by
the man who had no home during the last forty years of his life, and
whose body, thirty years after his death, was going home at last to be
interred in its native soil.
While traveling in Egypt, Worthington had an audience with the Khedive,
Tewfik Pasha Mohammed, in his palace on the Nile. The conversation was
formal and perfunctory, until, in reply to an amiable inquiry,
Worthington stated that his home was in a village, in New York State,
named Cooperstown. At the mention of this name the Khedive exhibited
genuine interest.
"Cooperstown," he repeated, "Is not Cooperstown the home of Fenimore
Cooper, the great author?"
It was now Worthington's turn to exhibit interest, for in boyhood he had
been next door neighbor to Cooper; and he asked if his Highness was
acquainted with the writings of the novelist. The Khedive had read all
of Cooper's books. Some of them he cared little for, but those he did
care for he loved. _The Leather-Stocking Tales_ had opened a new world
to him, and he was charmed. _The Deerslayer_ he "adored." The sublime
and shadowy forests, the silent lakes high up in evergreen hills, the
cool rivers--how they captivated his imagination! how they invited his
soul! He would, he exclaimed, give a year of his life if he might view
the Glimmerglass, if he might tread a forest trail. In his library the
Khedive showed to his visitor, with evident satisfaction, his three
magnificent sets of Cooper's works, in French, in German, and in
English.
John Worthington's later days were passed in Cooperstown, where he lived
to be the village man of letters, delighting his contemporaries with
contributions of picturesque prose and graceful verse that would have
given him a wider renown had he written otherwise than, as it seemed,
for the mere pleasure of writing for the entertainment of his friends.
His twelve years of service at Malta, with many excursions in the
ancient world, developed in him an oriental color of mind, and gave even
to the Otsego of his childhood, when he returned hither to live, the
dreamy glamour of the mystic East. At home he lived altogether among
books, and in the companionship of poetic imagination passed the years
of almost exile from Malta, his fondest retrospect. A winning soul was
John Worthington, widely beloved for what he was, and mourned for all
that he might have been.
During the Civil War a girl of extraordinary beauty and vivacity,
skilled as a musician, drew many suitors to her home, the house which
still stands at the southwest corner of Pioneer and Elm streets. Her
name was Elizabeth Davis, and her happy disposition made her a universal
favorite in the community. Toward the close of the war she suffered a
disappointment in love, the exact nature of which was not made known,
but so seriously affecting her attitude toward life that she registered
a solemn vow never again to be seen in public. From this time forth she
kept to the house, although it was said that she sometimes walked about
at night. Years passed. Father, mother, brother, and sister, followed
one another to the grave, until Elizabeth Davis became the only
inhabitant of the old house. Nobody ever saw her except a negro who
brought her supplies. In the village there grew up a new generation to
which she was a stranger. The windows of the house showed an abundance
of the choicest plants, always carefully tended. Passers-by often
arrested their steps to listen to the sound of a piano splendidly played
within. But nobody ever caught a glimpse of a face or form. The most
that the nearest neighbors saw was a hand and arm that were stretched
forth from the windows every evening to close the blinds. Thus Elizabeth
Davis lived for more than thirty years after the close of the war, and
carried her secret to the grave.
In the time of the Civil War the favorite reading matter of the soldiers
in camp and hospital throughout the northern armies was supplied by the
enterprise of Erastus F. Beadle, who had learned the publishing business
in the employment of the Phinneys in Cooperstown, himself being a native
of Pierstown, just over the hill. He became known throughout the United
States as the publisher of "Beadle's Dime Novels," and on his retirement
from business in 1889 purchased "Glimmerview," the residence which
overlooks the lake next east of the O-te-sa-ga. Here he died in 1894.
This inventor of the "dime novel" made an amazing success of publishing
paper-covered books adapted to the popular taste on a scale of cheapness
and in quantities which had never before been dreamed of. After leaving
Cooperstown, he began business for himself in Buffalo, publishing
magazines, and on his removal to New York, in 1858, discovered, in the
publication of "The Dime Song Book," the field which he afterward made
so profitable. To the song books were added, in rapid succession, the
"Household Manual," the "Letter Writer," and the "Book of Etiquette." In
the summer of 1860 the Dime Novels were started. These little
salmon-covered books became immediately popular all over the country,
and the business grew to vast proportions, until Beadle had about
twenty-five writers employed in the composition of stories for his
imprint. The business was afterward expanded to include the publication
of popular "Libraries,"--the Dime Library, the Boy's Library, the Pocket
Library, and the Half-Dime Library. After his retirement from business,
as a resident of Cooperstown, Beadle did much for the development of the
village.
[Illustration: MAIN STREET
Looking west from Fair Street, 1861. The Clark Gymnasium displaces the
two buildings at the left.]
The village had troubles of its own during the progress of the war. In
the spring of 1862, a disastrous fire, the largest conflagration in the
history of Cooperstown, destroyed at least a third of the business
district. The fire started near the Cory stone building, which alone
survived of the stores and shops in the path of the flames that spread
on the north side of Main Street, and extended from the building next to
the present Mohican Club as far east as Pioneer Street. The fire then
crossed to the south side of Main Street, destroying the old Eagle
Tavern, originally the Red Lion, and burning westward as far as the
present Carr's Hotel. Up Pioneer Street, on the west side the flames ate
their way as far south as the Phinney residence. The buildings at the
eastern corners of Main and Pioneer streets were several times on fire,
and were saved only by supreme efforts of the village firemen. The
survival of the Cory building was due in part to its solid stone
construction, but chiefly to the efforts of two plucky men, David P.
House and George Newell, who stationed themselves on the roof, and while
the fire worked its way around the rear of the building, succeeded in
defending their position, although so terribly scorched that for weeks
afterward they went about swathed in bandages.
A few nights later the Otsego Hotel and adjacent buildings, which stood
on the site of the present Village Library, were also destroyed by fire.
At this conflagration, which seemed about to complete the destruction of
Main Street, a woman appeared, who equalled the courage of the firemen
in her defiance of the flames. She was Susan Hewes, a maiden lady who
kept a milliner's shop in the little one-story building that stands on
the north side of the Main Street, a short distance west of the corner
of Fair Street. Emulating the example of the men who saved the Cory
building, she appeared on the roof of her little shop, and presented a
dramatic spectacle as she stood forth in the glare of the flames, crying
out that she would save her property at the cost of her life.
Fortunately the flames were checked without any such sacrifice, and
Susan Hewes lived to become, more than half a century afterward, the
oldest native inhabitant of the village, famous for the old-fashioned
tangled garden on Pine Street, where she dwelt so long among her
favorite flowers. During the Civil War period she was a marked figure in
the village, for her outspoken independence in expressing sympathy for
the Southern cause led to a visit of remonstrance with which a committee
of leading citizens honored her in her little milliner's shop; while her
refusal to submit to the dictates of fashion when the huge hoop-skirts
came into vogue caused her to be gazed upon as a marvel of
incompleteness in dress.
For a time Cooperstown was much depressed by the ruin which fire had
wrought in the village, but, before long, a new business section began
slowly to rise from the ashes of the old. West of Pioneer Street, where
the Eagle Tavern had narrowed the width of the main thoroughfare to the
dimensions of a mere lane, the street was now made of uniform width, and
new business blocks were erected. By the close of the Civil War all
signs of destruction had disappeared, and the Main street of
Cooperstown, if far less picturesque than before, had assumed the
appearance of brand new prosperity.
This period, in fact, marks the beginning of a gradual change in the
character of Cooperstown, by which an elderly village, typical in its
inherited traditions, has taken on the airs of a summer resort, and has
become the residence, for a part of each year, of wealthy families whose
chief interests lie elsewhere, and to whom Otsego is a playground. While
much of the older character of the village remains, the contact with the
outer world has had a far-reaching effect upon its inhabitants.
Some of the old-fashioned merchants were at first inclined to resent the
demands made by city folk in excess of the time-honored customs of trade
in Cooperstown. Seth Doubleday kept a store at the northwest corner of
Main and Pioneer streets. One day a lady from the city came in airily,
ordered a mackerel delivered at her summer home in the village, and was
out again before Doubleday could recover his breath. At that period all
villagers went to market with a basket, and carried their own goods
home. Nobody thought of having purchases delivered by the merchant.
Doubleday was enraged at what seemed to him an insolent demand, and the
longer he reflected on the matter the more furious did he become. At
last, leaving his shop unattended, he went in person to the customer's
house to deliver the mackerel. The lady herself opened the door.
Doubleday took the fish by the tail, and slapped it down vigorously upon
the doorstep, exclaiming, "There, madam, is your damned three-cent
mackerel, and _delivered_!"
The new phase of village life may perhaps be dated from the purchase of
the Apple Hill property by Edward Clark of New York, who, in 1856, made
his summer home here, and after the close of the Civil War erected his
mansion. The establishment of this country-seat was but the beginning of
the extension of Edward Clark's estate in this region, and created a
relationship to the village which his descendants have ever since
continued.
"Apple Hill," as the place was called before Edward Clark's purchase, or
"Fernleigh," as he renamed it, is thus a connecting link between the old
and the new in Cooperstown. It has a story that brings the elder
traditions of the village into touch with the newer spirit of modern
enterprise.
Apple Hill was originally the property of Richard Fenimore Cooper,
eldest son of the founder of the village. In the summer of 1800 he built
the house which stood until displaced by Fernleigh House in 1869.
Fenimore Cooper described the site as "much the best within the limits
of the village," no doubt with reference to the superb view of the
Susquehanna which the veranda at the rear of the house commands. Richard
Cooper planted the black walnut and locust trees, some of which are yet
standing in front of the house at Fernleigh. To the home at Apple Hill
he brought from the head of the lake as a bride, Anne Cary, who after
his death became the wife of George Clarke of Hyde Hall.
From 1825 to 1828 Apple Hill was the residence of the afterward
distinguished Judge Samuel Nelson, and during the next five years was
owned and occupied by General John A. Dix, who had resigned from the
army, and settled down in Cooperstown to practise law. His first cases
were prepared in a little office that stood near the gate of the Apple
Hill property. At that time it is said that he made a poor impression as
a public speaker, and gave small promise of his later fame. In 1833 he
became secretary of state of New York, and afterward was United States
Senator. During the Civil War he raised seventeen regiments, and as
Secretary of the Treasury at the outbreak of the war issued the famous
order which first convinced the country that the executive government at
Washington was really determined to meet force with force: "If anyone
attempts to pull down the American flag, shoot him on the spot!" After
the war General Dix was minister to France, and in 1872 was elected
Governor of the State of New York. Among the children of General Dix
who played hide-and-seek amid the trees of Apple Hill was Morgan Dix,
afterward the distinguished rector of Trinity parish, New York, who in
later years passed many summers in Cooperstown. It was remembered of Dr.
Dix's childhood that when his mother sent him away from Cooperstown to
school, being apprehensive of his safe conduct on the journey, she put
him into the stage-coach completely enveloped in a green baize bag that
she had made for the purpose, with nothing but the boy's head emerging
from the opening which was snugly tied around his neck. Dr. Dix's last
visit to Cooperstown was in 1891 when he was a guest at the Cooper
House, and was driven forth, with two hundred and fifty other guests, by
the fire which burned it to the ground in the early dawn of the eighth
of August. This summer hotel stood within the grounds occupied by the
Present High School. Its burning was a calamity to Cooperstown, for
under the management of Simeon E. Crittenden it had become widely
famous, and drew guests from every part of the country.
From 1833 to 1839 Apple Hill was the home of Levi C. Turner, who married
the daughter of Robert Campbell, and afterward was for some years county
judge. During the Civil War Turner was Judge Advocate in the War
Department under President Lincoln, concerning whom he had many intimate
reminiscences.
In early days, before the common school system was developed, there were
many attempts to establish private schools in Cooperstown, with more or
less success. John Burroughs, the famous naturalist, received the last
of his schooling in the spring and summer of 1856 at the Cooperstown
Seminary, afterward converted into the summer hotel known as the Cooper
House.
But of all the private schools in the village the most noted was
established at Apple Hill in 1839 by William H. Duff, a former officer
of the British Army, and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. Duff had
a romantic history, involved in a good deal of mystery. He had emigrated
from England to Canada, bringing with him a beautiful young wife,--an
elopement, it was said. Mrs. Duff was evidently of gentle birth, while
her husband was of commanding presence, military bearing, and
captivating manners. Whether he was entitled to the rank of Major, which
he assumed, was always doubted.
Duff was well informed in all branches of army tactics, and the school
that he established was well known as a military academy. The
institution became popular, and the boys in their uniforms gave a new
and welcome touch of color to the life of the village. The afternoon
drills were witnessed by many spectators, and when the school increased
until a mounted field-piece, drawn by four horses, was added to the
equipment, the exhibit became quite sensational. Few pupils of that day
could ever forget the winter drills on the frozen lake, with the
thermometer near zero, as requiring an endurance worthy of hardier
veterans.
One incident connected with the school made a sensation at the time.
During the winter of 1840 a strong party of Indians found their way to
the village, and remained for several days. One of them got into a
drunken bout, and died quite suddenly. Shortly after the departure of
the band the rumor was circulated among the loungers in the streets that
the friends of the dead Indian suspected foul play, and were coming from
their encampment on the following night to wreak vengeance upon the
village. These flying rumors came to the ears of some of the pupils of
Duff's Academy, who hastened to communicate the alarming intelligence to
their principal. Whether Duff really accepted the truth of the reports,
or wished to test the military efficiency and courage of his pupils, he
promptly called his troops together, delivered an impressive harangue on
the danger of the situation and the glory to be won by rallying to the
defence of the village against a savage foe. Plans were soon made to
repel the attack. Muskets were made ready for service. Some boys were
sent into the village for powder, others for lead from which they were
soon actively engaged in moulding bullets. A detachment was sent to
remove to the house all effects from the schoolroom which stood near the
gate, and the doors and windows of the house were strongly barricaded.
Preparations were made to patrol the village at night, and the school
was detailed into squads, who were to protect the principal streets.
Sentries paced from the house to the gate, and from Christ churchyard
to the corner of Main Street, while outposts were stationed across the
river who were to give warning of the enemy's approach by the discharge
of a musket. The younger boys were left at home on guard at the doors
and windows of the house. As the midnight hour approached Major Duff
sallied forth and inspected the disposal of his forces. During the long
winter darkness of that night the boys marched up and down the village
streets, with imaginations so fearfully wrought up as to deny the need
of sleep which lay heavy upon them. If any of the inhabitants of the
village sympathized in this watchfulness in their behalf, or kept awake
to see what was going on, there was no evidence of it. The boys were
left to their vigil. They passed the night in anxious watching. No
Indians appeared, and all danger was dispelled by the rays of the rising
sun.
Too much prosperity was the ruin of Duff's school. It became so
successful that the principal neglected duty for pleasure, leaving the
school in charge of subordinates. Then, in less than five years from its
beginning, it failed. At the outbreak of the Mexican War, Duff obtained
a captain's commission in the United States Army, and when last seen by
his old friends he presented an imposing appearance as he rode down
Broadway in New York at the head of his company, with martial music and
flying colors, to embark for Vera Cruz.[119]
George A. Starkweather purchased Apple Hill in 1847, and lived there
until he sold it in 1856 to Edward Clark. The latter had been attracted
to Cooperstown as at one time the home of his distinguished
father-in-law, and law-partner, Ambrose L. Jordan. Mrs. Clark, who was
Jordan's eldest child, was born while the Jordans were resident in
Cooperstown in the house which still stands at the northwest corner of
Main and Chestnut streets, and after they removed to Hudson the daughter
was sent back to Cooperstown to attend the boarding school which was
conducted for a time in Isaac Cooper's old house at Edgewater. It was
through these associations that Edward Clark and his bride, after their
marriage in 1836, began to be frequent visitors in Cooperstown.
In the year 1848 Isaac M. Singer had become a client of Jordan & Clark
in New York City. He was an erratic genius, and had taken up various
occupations without much success, besides having invented valuable
mechanical devices which had brought him no profit. The form of
sewing-machine that he invented, and which has ever since been
associated with his name, was not profitable at first, and under
Singer's management the title to the invention became involved, and was
likely to be lost. In this emergency the inventor applied to his legal
adviser, Clark, to advance the means to redeem an interest of one-third
in the sewing-machine invention and business, and to hold that share as
security for money advanced. Afterward was formed the co-partnership of
I. M. Singer & Co., in which Clark was the legal adviser and half
owner. The business was carried on by this firm with great success from
1851 to 1863, during which period Edward Clark established his residence
in Cooperstown. After Singer's death Clark became president of the
Singer Manufacturing Company.
[Illustration: FERNLEIGH]
Edward Clark spent many winters in Europe, residing at different times
in Paris and in Rome, but his summers were usually devoted to
Cooperstown, and the present stone house at Fernleigh was his summer
home for twenty-three years. When this house was erected it was regarded
as a wonder. It took four years in building, and was indeed of
remarkable workmanship, with substantial masonry and the most exquisite
elaborations of woodwork. But it had the misfortune to be built in the
"black walnut period," when taste in domestic architecture was at a low
ebb, so that much of the interior, and some of the exterior, has since
been altered. The stone building southwest of the house was built as a
Turkish bath.
In 1873, Edward Clark purchased Fernleigh-Over from the Bowers estate,
and from time to time added to his property in Cooperstown, notably in
the purchase of farms on either side of the lake. He became much
identified with the interests of the village, and built the Hotel
Fenimore.
Edward Clark was entranced by Otsego Lake, upon which he spent much time
in sailing. His _Nina_ and _Elise_ were beautiful sailing yachts, and
would have been an ornament to any waters. Clark was described by
village contemporaries as a man of somewhat peculiar temperament. He was
naturally reticent, and seemed to be most highly appreciated by his
intimates. In educational matters he was greatly interested, having
given largely to Williams College, of which he was a graduate and Doctor
of Laws. He contributed generously to the welfare of the schools of
Cooperstown, in which he established the Clark Punctuality prizes. In
Cooperstown, and elsewhere, he did much charitable work in a quiet way.
In 1876 Kingfisher Tower was completed, which Edward Clark had caused
to be erected at Point Judith, about two miles from Cooperstown, on the
eastern shore of Otsego Lake. It was said that Clark's motive in
building the tower was to furnish work for many in the community who
were out of employment. Scoffers referred to the building derisively as
"Clark's folly." At the request of a village newspaper, Clark himself
wrote an account of it which was published anonymously.
[Illustration: _M. Antoinette Abrams_
KINGFISHER TOWER]
"Kingfisher Tower," he wrote, "consists of a miniature castle, after
the style of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, standing upon the
extremity of the Point and rising out of the water to a height of nearly
sixty feet. It forms an objective point in the scene presented by the
lake and surrounding hills; it adds solemnity to the landscape, seeming
to stand guard over the vicinity, while it gives a character of
antiquity to the lake, a charm by which we cannot help being impressed
in such scenes. The effect of the structure is that of a picture from
medieval times, and its value to the lake is very great. Mr. Clark has
been led to erect it simply by a desire to beautify the lake and add an
attraction which must be seen by all who traverse the lake or drive
along its shores. They whose minds can rise above simple notions of
utility to an appreciation of art joined to nature, will thank him for
it."
When Edward Clark died, in 1882, his youngest and only surviving son,
Alfred Corning Clark, much of whose life had been spent abroad,
inherited the greater part of his father's property, and became
proprietor of Fernleigh.
Alfred Corning Clark possessed in a magnified degree certain qualities
which had distinguished his father. He was more retiring, more reticent,
more inclined to find the full joy of life only among intimates. He
became a patron of art and music, and himself an amateur in singing. He
built Mendelssohn Hall, in New York, for the use of a musical
organization to which he belonged. Of books he was not only a lover, but
a student, devoted to the classics, and well versed in modern
languages. In the village of Cooperstown he was known as a bookworm. He
enjoyed walking about his own grounds, but hardly ever went into the
village, and there were many residents of Cooperstown who had never seen
his face. The proprietor of the corner book store in his day remarked
that he had never but once seen Alfred Corning Clark in the village
street, and this was when he had an errand at the book store to make an
inquiry concerning a newly published volume.
In the use of his great fortune Clark was extremely liberal in charities
and toward such other objects as commended themselves to his judgment;
while he was correspondingly powerful in opposition to whatever involved
a principle with which he disagreed.
Mrs. Clark, who was Elizabeth Scriven, was a woman of exceptional gifts
of mind and benignance of character, well qualified to assume the
responsibilities which fell upon her when Alfred Corning Clark died, at
the age of fifty-three years, in 1896. With cultivated tastes, she had
also a practical talent for business, and, although well served by
agents in the management of her large interests, was always thoroughly
informed and full of initiative. In New York, among men of affairs, she
was regarded as one of the most far-seeing judges of real estate values
in the city. In the management of her domestic and other concerns she
had an extraordinary faculty for administration, which failed of
attaining genius only through the effort which she put forth to give
personal attention to details. This amiable weakness nevertheless added
the interest of her personality to undertakings that might have failed
for the lack of such a spirit as hers; and in her many charities the
personal touch which she took the trouble to give added infinitely to
the happiness and self-respect of those to whom her kindness, as in
neighborly thoughtfulness, was extended.
In Cooperstown Mrs. Clark became an arbiter of the social and moral
virtues, and the things that she frowned upon were usually not done. She
had a wholesome influence in resisting certain excesses which not seldom
appear in communities partly given over to the pursuit of pleasure. In
some innovations against which she protested, Mrs. Clark at last
gracefully yielded to the inevitable. This was the case with
automobiles, which, when they first appeared upon the country roads, she
regarded with the alarm and disgust of one devoted to a carriage and
horses, and would have banished them from Otsego if she had had the
power. In that period of transition few country roads were adapted to
the use of motors, and to meet one of the new machines while driving in
a carriage along the lake shore was to suffer the apprehension of
imminent death from the fury of plunging horses, and to be nearly choked
in a cloud of dust.
Mrs. Clark was fond of walking, and she was a familiar figure in the
residence streets of the village in summer, usually dressed in white,
without a bonnet, and carrying a white parasol above her head, as she
moved with quick step upon some errand.
The homestead at Fernleigh represents much that has contributed to the
development of Cooperstown. The greater part of the industry controlled
by the Clark estates is managed from the offices of the Singer Building
in New York, which when it was erected in 1909 was the tallest office
building in the world. But a large part of the interests of the estates
is centered in the picturesque old building, originally built for a
bank, which stands near the entrance of the Cooper Grounds in
Cooperstown. The Cooper Grounds themselves were rescued from a condition
of desolation in which they had lain for many years after the death of
Fenimore Cooper, and are maintained by the Clark estates for the benefit
of the public. The Village Club and Library across the way is a creation
of the Clark estates. On the hills east and west of the village, and
along the eastern shore of the lake for a stretch of nearly six miles,
the same ownership has preserved for all lovers of nature the noble
forests that lend a charm of wildness to the region.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 119: _A Few Omitted Leaves_, Keese, p. 12; _History of
Cooperstown_, Livermore, p. 46.]