It "Happened" Here--Historical Markers for Fictional Characters/Events: James Fenimore Cooper's Novels
In recent years the Pomeroy Foundation has developed their "Legends and Lore" Program . This series marks the locations/scenes of folk tales and legendary ocurrences passed down in the communities in which they were said to have happened but which fail to meet historical verification. But going back to the issuance of some of the first NYSHMs, fictional characters and imagined events were occasionally memorialized almost as if they were historical. And this pattern continues with real locations and events being given relevancy and importance by connecting them to literary characters and actions on signage. In this post we will look at signs connected with the works of James Fenimore Cooper, and to markers related to actual persons said to have been the models for some of Cooper's characters.
Hutter's Point
Where Hettie saved her
Father, Tom Hutter
From the Huron
"Deerslayer"
--This sign , originally, 4 1/2 miles N. of Cooperstown has been missing for decades
Another marker, which is also missing, was located on the grounds of the Van Wyck Homestead in Fishkill, NY. It asserts that the historic house was the model for the Wharton Home, the principal setting for The Spy, Cooper's novel based on the exploits of Enoch Crosby, a real-life informant on British/Tory activities who was tried and condemned in the Fishkill homestead, later to be aided in his escape by patriot authorities.
Wharton House
Made Famous by Cooper's
Novel "The Spy", Headquarters
Of Gen.Putnam in the Revolution
From Cooper's description of the Wharton house, the Van Wyck Homestead may have been the model for the Wharton house.
"The house was of stone, long, low, and with a small wing at each extremity. A piazza, extending along the front, with neatly turned pillars of wood, together with the good order and preservation of the fences and outbuildings, gave the place an air altogether superior to the common farmhouses of the country. "
Though not built of stone, and having only one wing, it is easy to imagine this house inspired the house in Cooper's work.
In 4th work of Cooper's"Leatherstocking"series [1] The Pathfinder finds his most famous character, Natty Bumpo, aka. "the Pathfinder" and his companions, working there way, by canoe, through a series of treacherous rapids and riffs down the Oswego river on their way to Fort Oswego at its mouth where the river empties into Lake Ontario. Intercepted by a Mingo, French aligned, war-party they narrowly escape in a running battle. In the town of Fulton, originally known as Oswego Falls, near the Oswego Canal is this sign.
Lastly, there are the signs connected with Cooper's most famous book, The Last of the Mohicans. A section of the falls of the Hudson at Glens Falls have long been identified as Cooper's Cave since Cooper visited it in 1824 and wrote about it, describing dramatically how Hawkeye, Chingachgook, Uncas and his English charges hid from the Hurons by seeking shelter in the rocks at the base of the falls and fighting them off from an island in the center of the river until their powder and shot were exhausted. Later in the book, he would describe the British fort at the foot of Lake George, Ft. William Henry and its investment by the French, its surrender, and the massacre that occurred when the Indians, that accompanied them attacked the surrendering English.
Rt. 9, S. Glens Falls at the bridge
One of the caves below the Falls
The Hudson, below the Falls; the island where the cave is located in the left foreground; (Finch Paper Co. is on the opposite shore)
The reconstructed, popular attraction, Ft. William Henry, Lake St., Lake George
The recent sign in front of Ft. William Henry
Natty Bumppo is one of literature's more famous characters so it is not surprising that stories have developed about a real-life person who was supposed to have been the inspiration/model for that character, but Cooper's hero has two! and Pomeroy documents them both.
Natty Bumppo
In this Burial Ground Lies
Nathaniel Shipman
the Inspiration for James
Fenimore Cooper's Famous
"Natty Bumppo" Character
- New York Folklore, William C. Pomeroy Foundation 2019
Main and Hall St., Hoosick Falls
Rte. 26, south of Fly Creek, NY
Marker of the Week Fortnight - Well, since NYSHMS : It Happened Here is resuming the final week of October I feel the need to make at least some ghostly, witchy or Halloween-themed reference. Fortunately, Pomeroy is there to provide! A short distance from my home is the settlement of New Salem, N.Y., a hamlet at the foot of the Helderberg Escarpment too small for many years to support a corner grocery store, a gas station, a post office, or a coffee shop. If the settlers of this Salem had any connection to the Salem in Massachusetts of witchcraft infamy, I do not know it. But, apparently, they used to grow Pumpkins--Big Pumpkins!
[1] This is the third work chronologically of Natty Bumpo's life with the character appearing as a middle-aged man. [2] Text of the sign:
