Show Fifty Famous Frontiersmen ny By ELMO IO SCOTT WATSON Original Stocking Leather T is lU author has often been L asked It if he had hind any original in his min 1 I for the character of Leather Stocking In a n ph physical sense different Mu ls known n to the writer In early life certainly presented themselves es as models through his recollections but In a amoral amoral amoral moral sense this man of oC the forest Is purely a creation Thus wrote Hote J Fenimore Cooper In tine the preface of ot hs h's immortal Leather Stocking Tales TalLe and that statement should pretty well dis dis- dispose dis- dis dispose dispose pose of oC various historical chirac ter tere whose cl slots to being the original leather I eather Stocking have o been advanced from time to time One of oC them is rim Murph Murphy the fa famous Morgan Morgin Rifleman and nd Scout of oC the Schoharie Lut but If you would look upon n a faithful likeness of the man who probably was ns mot most In Coopers Cooper s mInd ns as he created the character II I er Steel in Ing In lu rite rhe I the first published of the Leather Stoc Stock StockIng lag Ing Tales or In the of that name mme go to the to town ton toof n of Caroga N I 1 and Gaze ne upon the heroic bronze statue of Stoner near there The son of oC old Henry Stoner i pIoneer settler of I NY N Y young Joung oung Nick Mck became a crack shot with the long rifle rIne almost as soon as he was as big enough to carry one oneAt At the age of ot fifteen he enlisted In Inthe inthe Inthe the Continental army arm with Ith his fa tiler and brother and fought at Sir atoa Oriskany In the Rhode Is Island Island Island land campaign at alley Valley Forge at n Toward To the close of oC the ne old hear Stoner returned home only to be killed and scalped hy by the Indians and lea leave e to hIs sons a heritage of hatred for the red men After thear the war ar Nick Stoner became the most mot celebrated hunter and trappers in hews I 1 e lork At the outbreak of oC the War of oC 1812 he marched a away assay ay to battle again sin Ing for three years most of ot the time tilDe as chief of oC scouts for General Dodge of oC the New ew York militia When hen the war nr was Wag over o he went ent back to his hunting and trappIng and his friendship with Ith Cooper during this period add adds plausibility to the theory that thit he was the principal original of oC Coopers Cooper s famous frontier charac charac- character character ter Although he lie served In mans county until hIs death In 18 3 the statue which stands nt at Caro Caroga a is the best s symbol of oC his place In the history history the orIginal Leather Stocking I |