Show authors D M AM hir coopers birthplace purchased by burlington count county N J historical society burlington N J the birthplace here of jaines fenimore cooper first of Anle american ilean novelists whose leather tales talea of burly settlement life have beau renil reaO tho Ibo world around tor for the last century jias has been purchased from f private owners by tho the burlington county coura historical lit stori jill society and will be ro reopened penel as hn an historic on oil tho the one hundred and hd thirty fourth tin nn of coener Coe coders nir 4 birth little known incidents in the life of cooper brought out by tho the restoration of its ills which has sheltered ma many ny different families elul lio lie was born there september 15 1780 view there arp who hiie knew that caoper was it n sailor before lie he was its a writer it Is a coincidence that lie and an t i capt james lawrence Law tonce were born next lour door to enczi other liere on south high elgh street where both houses still stand in n a good state of preservation was wag quite a voy boy when cooper was bom whether they ever mee met 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 of the same name lawrence entered the navy as a midshipman sh lilman in ili 1793 1703 not so much Is told of coopers naval career but he commanded a gunboat for a time on lake champlain while lawrence commanded in succession the argus vixen and wasp lie ile was aboard the wasp until 1811 cooper had lind also been aboard a ship named wasp for some time when he resigned from tile the navy in 1811 after serhis his marriage to gratify the wish of its his wife that he remain on land missed the ifie war of 1812 thus it happened that james F pent eat more cooper just missed misled the war of 1812 in which james lawrence won undying fame by giving the american navy its fighting motto moto dont give up the ship uttered as his dying words as lie he was ns being carried from the deck of the chesapeake Che speake after being mortally wounded in a naval engagement with the british frigate shannon on oil june 4 1 1813 1 cooper blazed the way for american writers among whom he was the first to extend the domain of fiction over the son sea the prairie and the rarest forest eliat he blared blazio tile the path well 1 shown by thi ohp fact that during thirty years lie he wrote 39 9 novels besides other writings that never became public was son sn of a quaker much of ills ift writing was wag done tit at N 1 whither his family had bad moved from burlington when I 1 james was about a year old lie he was the eleventh of twelve children most of whom who tiled in infancy ills his fattier father was a quaker Q linker the settlement around cooperstown Coopers town was in ili tile wilderness along the upper reaches of tho the sus du duchanno channa there james la in ills his boyhood saw much of wild lifo and of indians deans and settlers to provide material for the thrilling books of adventure 3 hat hat lie began to write in 1820 the first work to io win him film faine was tho py written in 1821 tho the leather mocking tales were started during that hint decade few young americans amei leans there are arc who have riot not been thrilled in tit the rending reading of ills Deer slayer last of the mohicans cans and others of 01 the series the fame faille and all inter years of coopers life altti were clouded by ills his bitter clashes with ills critics in which the novelist wasted much of ills his alma tam energy and fortune which its his biographers say might better have been devoted to further literary lie ile died at cooperstown Coopers town september 1851 oust just the day before ills his sixty second birthday to restore old home the cooper birthplace has long been cherished among the historical shrines of cai burlington lias has an unusual wealth for a century it has been pointed out to visitors ns as one of tile tha cites chief places or 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 tore out the mantelpieces mantel pieces which were an adornment of the colonial houses in coopers lay day A more modem MO de rn door was also provided when the old one wore out the general appearance of the house however remains much AS it was when the novelist wa was 4 bo born M there Thep the small niall panes in the windows alone are sufficient lelent to distinguish it from present day homes the burlington county historical society ila lias s 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 bister of colonel franklin doller first national commander of the american legion and now director of the sesquicentennial committee in philadelphia delp hla the historical society for years has had its quarters in the old library building on oil union street but with the completion of repairs to the cooper house it will move its quarters to the novelists birthplace which Is to be pros preserved emed as a public museum rous euro |