The turning point in Cooper's life was reached when he went to Cooperstown, although he was little more than a child in arms. Most curious is it that his going should have resulted from the foreclosure of a mortgage. This mortgage had been given in the late Colonial period by George Croghan, and covered a vast tract of native forest lands in Otsego. In these lands, through the foreclosure, Cooper's father, soon after the Revolution, acquired a large interest, which led him to abandon his home of ease and refinement in Burlington, New Jersey, and found a new, and, as it proved to be, a permanent one in the unpeopled wilderness at the foot of Otsego Lake. Except for this accident of fortune, Leatherstocking and his companions of the forest never could have been created by the pen of Cooper.
[Illustration: signature 'Francis W. Italsey']
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. From Appleton portrait. By permission of owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq., of Albany, N.Y. _Frontispiece_
THE ENGLISH FYNAMORE COUNTRY AND FAMILY ARMS.
COOPER'S BIRTHPLACE. Burlington, N.J. From a photograph by George W. Tichnor
THE FENIMORE BOX. (Of light and dark woods, size 12-1/2 X 6-3/4 inches.) From photograph by permission of owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq., Albany, N.Y.
CHINGACHGOOK ON COUNCIL ROCK. From a photograph by A.J. Telfer
COUNCIL ROCK. From a photograph by A.J. Telfer
THE MANOR. From outline on _first_ map of Cooperstown, 1788-1790. By permission of owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.
ORIGINAL OTSEGO HALL. From outline on 1800-1808 map of Cooperstown. By permission of owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.
JUDGE WILLIAM COOPER. By Gilbert Stuart. By permission of owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.
GENERAL WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. From a portrait by Woods, 1812
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 1800. From "St. Memim's Gallery of Portraits"
POINT JUDITH. From a photograph by A.J. Telfer
"EDGEWATER." By courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
MR. AND MRS. GEORGE POMEROY. By the courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
THE OLD STONE HOUSE. By the courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
COOPERSTOWN PRIOR TO 1835. From _The Family Magazine_, 1836-1837
DR. THOMAS ELLISON. By the courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
ST. PETER'S CHURCH, ALBANY, N.Y. By the courtesy of Dr. Joseph Hooper, Durham, Conn.