Show Autho J HA 0 m C mi lawo irm COM fb kraw 1015 cypin coopers birthplace purchased by burlington county N J historical society burlington N J the birt birthplace lip ace liere of james fenimore cooper first of american novelists whose tales or of early settlement life have been rend read the world around for the last century lias has been burch purchased asel from private owners by the burlington county historical society and will be reopened as un tin historic shrine on the one hundred and thirty fourth anniversary niver sary of coers Cor cra birth little known incidents in the life of cooper have been brought out by the restoration of ills his birthplace which viii ell has sheltered many different families since lie he was born there september 15 1780 few there tire are who knew that cooper was waa a sailor before lie he was vas a writer it Is a that he and capt james lawrence were born next door to each other here on south high street where both houses still stand in a good state of 0 preservation lawrence was quite a boy when cooper was born whether they ever met la Is conjecture suggested through a comparison of their biographies which record that both jameses served on the wasp tile the american navy was hardly big enough in those days to boast of two ships ot of the lie same name lawrence entered the navy as a midshipman in 1703 1793 not so much Is told of coopers naval career but he commanded a gunboat for a time on lake champlain Champl aln while lawrence commanded in succession the argus vixen and wasp he was aboard the wasp until 1811 cooper had nago been aboard a ship named wasp for some time when he resigned from the navy tit in 1811 atter after his marriage to gratify the wish of ills his wife that ho he remain on land missed the war of 1812 thus it happened that james feril more cooper just missed the war of 1812 in which james lawrence won undying fame by giving the american navy its fighting motto dont give up the ship uttered as hla his dying words as lie he was being carried from the deck of the chesapeake Chee Che peake speake after being mortally wounded in a naval engagement with the british frigate shannon on june 1 1813 cooper blazed tho the way for american fiction writers among whom ho he was the first to extend tile the domain of fiction over the sen sea the prairie and the forest that lie he blazed the path well Is shown by the fact that during thirty years lie he wrote 39 30 novels besides other writings that never became public was waa son of a quaker much of his writing was done at cooperstown Coopers town N 1 whither his family had moved from burlington when james was about a year old ilo ile wits was tile the eleventh of twelve children most of whom died in infancy ills ilia father was a quaker the settlement around Coopers cooperstown town was in the wilderness niong along tho the upper reaches of the sus sua qu elianna there james in ills his boyhood saw much of wild life and of indians tind and settlers settlers to provide material for the thrilling books of adventure that lie began to write in 1820 the first work to win him tame fame was the spy written in 1821 tile the tales were started during that decade deande few young americans there tire are who have not been thrilled in the of ills his pathfinder Deer slayer last of tile the mohicans cans and others of the series the fame and later years of Co coopers opera life were clouded by ills hla bitter bashus with lits his critics in which the novelist wasted much of ills time energy anti and fortune which ills his biographers say might better have been devoted to further furt lier literary attainments lie ile died at cooperstown Coopers town Septen september iber 14 1851 just the day before ills sixty second birthday to restore old horne home the cooper birthplace has long been cherished among the historical shrines W f burlington has an unusual wealth na alth for a century it has been pointed out to visitors as one of the cites chief places of interest it has remained under private ownership during that period but owners and tenants have acceded to public sentiment and preserved the property through successive generations with the greatest care true some of the modern tenants tort out the mantelpieces mantel pieces which were an adornment of the colonial houses tin in coopers Co opera day A more modern door was also provided when the old one i wore out the general appearance of the house however remains much as it was when the novelist was born there the small panes in the windows alone are sufficient clent to distinguish it from present day homes the burlington county historical society has also set about to restore some of the colonial features of the old house since it purchased the property the committee directing this restoration Is headed by alice doller a sister of colonel franklin doller first national commander of the american legion and now director of the committee in philadelphia delp hla the historical society for years has had its quarters in the old library building on union street but with the completion of repairs to the cooper house it will move mode its ites quarters qu artera to the novelists birthplace which la III to bo be preserved as a public museum |