James Fenimore Cooper, in a letter to his wife, dated Canajoharie, 1834, wrote of his father:  “I have been up to the ravine to the old Frey house.  It recalled my noble-looking, warmhearted, witty father, with his deep laugh, sweet voice, and fine, rich eye, as he used to light the way with his anecdotes and fun.  Old Frey, with his little black peepers, pipe, hearty laugh, broken English, and warm welcome, was in the background.  I went to the very spot where one of the old man’s slaves amused Sam and myself with an imitation of a turkey that no artist has ever yet been able to supplant in my memory.”  This Heindrick Frey was a noted character of the Mohawk Valley over one hundred years ago.

It was, however, to the first home on Otsego’s shore that the future creator of American romance was brought when a babe some thirteen months old.  Here, in the heart of the wilderness, his infancy was passed.  Otsego Hall sheltered his budding boyhood and young manhood.  Grace and refinement dwelt within the household; without, voices of the forest awakened and nurtured his naturally active mind, which later on was not less influenced by the mysteries of the sea.  The Six Nations were yet a power in the Mohawk Valley, then the highway to the land of the setting sun beyond.  And they are now remembered in the names of the principal lakes and streams of the country that once was theirs.  The boy was face-to-face with the “grim warriors, braves, and chieftains that the man, Fenimore Cooper, translated into his pages, with a touch true to the red man’s life,” his instinct in trading, his friendly and hostile intent.  Here Nature was his first and unforgettable teacher.  From “Pages and Pictures,” by his daughter, Susan Fenimore Cooper, much will be given in this book.  Miss Cooper has drawn some pretty pen-pictures of her father’s child-life.  She writes:  “From the first bow and arrow, kite and ball, to later feats in fishing, riding, shooting, and skating, all were connected with his highland home.”  He was “healthy and active; a brave, blithe-hearted, impetuous, most generous and upright boy.”  Of his childhood another record is:  “A gray-eyed, light-haired, ruddy boy, nimble as a deer and gay as a bird; on the lake, plying his oar lustily or trimming his sail to the mountain breeze; and whenever he found a wave high enough to lift his little boat, his veins would thrill with a strange delight, and he would ask himself whether this was like those ocean waves of which he had heard such wonders.”  The little lad’s next step in learning was taken under the gentle rule of his elder sister, Hannah, who had her schooling in New York City, and afterwards improved her leisure by extensive reading.  She was a model of domestic virtues and was greatly beloved, especially by the poor, to whom she was ever an angel of mercy.  She often went with her father on his official visits to the seat of government, and when, in 1800, at the age of twenty-three years, she lost her life by a fall from her horse, her early death was widely and deeply mourned.  Her memory was always cherished with peculiar tenderness by her brother James, the special charge of her loving care.