J.W. Orr From Soule
photograph

JENNY LIND AT CASTLE GARDEN, NEW YORK CITY, 1850. From an old print

DR. JOHN WAKEFIELD FRANCIS. From portrait by J. Goldbruam

DR. FRANCIS' HOME IN NEW YORK CITY. By Richardson

CHRIST'S CHURCH, COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. From a photograph by A.J. Telfer

FENIMORE COOPER'S SCREEN GIFT. From a print by courtesy of Miss Alice
Bailey Keese

BISHOP WILLIAM HEATHCOTE DE LANCEY. From Scharf's "History of
Westchester County, NY"

DE LANCEY COAT OF ARMS. From "A God-Child of Washington," by Katherine
Schuyler Baxter

THE NEW HOME AND THE OLD HOME.

INDIAN HUNTER. By J.Q.A. Ward

COOPER GROUNDS. From a photograph by A.J. Telfer

THE CHILDREN'S TRIBUTE. From a photograph by A.J. Telfer

LAKE OTSEGO. From a photograph by A.J. Telfer

LEATHERSTOCKING FIGURE OF COOPER MEMORIAL. From a photograph by A.J.
Telfer

LEATHERSTOCKING MONUMENT. By R.E. Launitz, N.A. From a photograph by
A.J. Telfer

GEORGE POMEROY KEESE. From a photograph by permission of Mrs. George
Pomeroy Keese

BERRY POMEROY CASTLE. By courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese

Acknowledgment is due The F.A. Ringler Company of New York City and
Messrs. John Andrew and Son of Boston, Mass., for the care and interest
they have shown in making the cuts used in this volume.

[Illustration: THE ENGLISH FYNAMORE COUNTRY AND FAMILY ARMS.]

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

[Illustration: COOPER'S BIRTHPLACE, Burlington, N.J.]

The light of this world fell on James Fenimore Cooper September 15,
1789. The founder of American romance was born in a quaint, two-storied
house of stuccoed brick which now numbers 457 Main St., Burlington, New
Jersey. It was then "the last house but one as you go into the country"
and among the best of the town. In a like house next door lived the
father of the naval hero, Capt. James Lawrence. These two houses opened
directly on the street and their slanting roofs were shaded by tall
trees rooted at the curbstones. This outline of Fenimore Cooper's
birthplace is from the text-picture in "Literary Rambles," by Theodore
F. Wolfe, M.D., Ph.D. The first of his father's family in this new
country was James Cooper, who came from Stratford-on-Avon, England, in
1679. He and his wife were Quakers, and with Quaker thrift bought wide
tracts of land in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Seventy-five years after
James Cooper stepped on American soil his great-grandson William was
born, December 2, 1754, in B