[Footnote 55: _Otsego Farmer_, Sept. 6, 1901.]

CHAPTER IV

THE BEGINNING OF THE SETTLEMENT

On an autumn day in the year 1785 a solitary horseman might have been
seen emerging from the forest near Otsego Lake. The old-fashioned
novelist who invented the "solitary horseman" as a means of introducing
a romance could not have found a better use for his favorite phrase than
to describe the approach of this visitor. For with his coming the
history of Cooperstown began. Following the trail from Cherry Valley,
the horseman came over the hill which rises toward the east from the
foot of Otsego Lake. Before descending into the vale, he dismounted and
climbed a sapling, in order to gain a glimpse beyond the dense screen of
intervening trees. From this elevation he looked down upon an enchanting
view of glimmering waters and wooded shores. While he gazed, a deer came
forth from the woods near Otsego Rock and slaked its thirst in the
liquid that flamed with the reflected red and gold of autumnal foliage.
The beauty of this first view always lingered in the heart of William
Cooper, and the hill from which he gained it he afterward called "the
Vision," in memory of his first impression. To this day the hill is
known as "Mount Vision."

In a letter written some years afterwards, William Cooper thus describes
his venture into this region:

In 1785 I visited the rough and hilly country of Otsego, where
there existed not an inhabitant, nor any trace of a road; I
was alone, three hundred miles from home, without bread, meat,
or food of any kind; fire and fishing tackle were my only
means of subsistence. I caught trout in the brook and roasted
them in the ashes. My horse fed on the grass that grew by the
edge of the waters. I laid me down to sleep in my watch coat,
nothing but the melancholy Wilderness around me. In this way I
explored the country, formed my plans of future settlement,
and meditated upon the spot where a place of trade or a
village should afterward be established.[56]

The Cooper family had settled in America in 1679, coming from
Buckingham, in England, and for a century made their home in Bucks
County, Pennsylvania. William Cooper was born in Byberry township,
Pennsylvania, December 2, 1754. He afterward became a resident of
Burlington, New Jersey, where he married Elizabeth Fenimore, daughter of
Richard Fenimore, whose family came from Oxfordshire,