Pulitzer winner describes Otsego

More than 210 years ago, the rural farmland of Otsego County could be described as an uninhabited dense forest.

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "William Cooper's Town," Alan Taylor describes the development of the area by the founder of Cooperstown, who was also a judge, congressman and father of author James Fenimore Cooper.

William Cooper accumulated close to 30,000 acres in Otsego County, and Yankee settlers came to transform the land that the Dutch and German inhabitants of New York disdained.

Hard times

"It was a hard time for most people," Dr. Taylor said of the lives of the early settlers of Cooperstown and Otsego County. "They were creating farms out of forest with nothing but hand tools and domesticated farm animals. It wore a lot of people out."

Before being able to begin farming, the settlers had to clear the forests of trees, said the professor of history at the University of California at Davis.

"Otsego was all too richly endowed with the wildlife that settlers needed to subdue," he said. "A heavy, thick forest of hardwood and hemlock trees covered the hills and sheltered large populations of carnivorous mammals: bears, panthers and wolves."

Women assisted in this labor-intensive work as well as tending to family life, which included preparing meals, making soap and candles, and caring for children.

Religious life

The long, grueling days left little time for other pursuits, including organized religion.

"They did not have the wherewithal to establish organized religion," he said, "although for some people, organized religion was a priority."

Organized religion didn't exist in Cooperstown until the establishment of a Presbyterian church in 1800. The next one to be constructed was an Episcopalian church, built in 1810.

Catholic absence

Catholicism was essentially non-existent in early Cooperstown, Dr. Taylor said. The first Catholic event conducted in the town didn't occur until 1844, just three years before the founding of the Albany Diocese.

"There were some Catholics in larger towns like Albany," he said. "There were pretty strong prejudices toward Catholics. This was based on ethnic prejudices, especially toward the Irish."

(Dr. Taylor will sign his book and speak about the lives of early settlers at the New York State Museum Theater in Albany on May 8, 5:30 p.m. His talk, titled "Wasty Ways: Settlers and Nature in Upstate New York and in the Mind of James Fenimore Cooper," will address the experience of settlers on the American frontier and how the writer transformed their activities into "The Pioneers," his 1823 novel. The lecture is free and open to the public, but reservations are required. Call 473-7091.)

(05-01-97) [[In-content Ad]]