Cultivez, belle Anna, votre gout pour l’etude;
    On ne saurait ici mieux employer son temps;
    Otsego n’est pas gai—­mais, tout est habitude;
    Paris vous deplairait fort au premier moment;
    Et qui jouit de soi dans une solitude,
    Rentrant au monde, est sur d’en faire I’ornement.

In affectionate remembrance of Miss Cooper the hill just northwest of Cooperstown was named for her, and “Hannah’s Hill” commands one of the town’s finest views.  In the quiet shades of Christ’s Church yard “belle Anna” rests beneath a slab bearing some lines by her father, but not her name.

The August before this sad event Judge Cooper gave the first of the many “lake parties” that floated over Otsego—­“which no waters can rival.”  In the fairness of her youth Miss Hannah was there with her little sister, later Mrs. Pomeroy; and also, among the gay “five and twenty friends from Philadelphia,” were their brothers.  Indian canoes and flat-bottomed skiffs conveyed them to the eastern shore, where, at Two-Mile Point, a frightened fawn, startled from its forest home by the dogs of Shipman the hunter,—­who later outlined “Leatherstocking,”—­darted from the leafy thicket and plunged into the lake.  At once all were in motion to rescue the little creature now swimming for life.  It was successfully brought to land and became a great pet with Judge Cooper’s children; but one day, frightened by strange, fierce dogs, it bounded into the forest depths for refuge, and never returned.

The centennial anniversary of this first picnic was celebrated by the third and fourth generation of Judge Cooper’s descendants, who met at Point Judith to honor the occasion.  Of the verses written by Mr. George Pomeroy Keese concerning this event two are: 

[Illustration:  POINT JUDITH.]

And one hundred years have come and gone
  Since our country then was new,
And now we keep in memory dear
  Our love for the good and true. 
To one who came to his forest home
  And gave to our village its name;
To the son, the touch of whose magic pen
  Has lifted to world-wide fame.

In this summer of 1800 Richard, Judge Cooper’s eldest son, built his house of frame on “Apple Hill.”  It was the second villa-like home in the village.  Its site, now known as “Fernleigh,” is the country-seat of Stephen Clark, Esq.  “Edgewater,” overlooking Lake Otsego, is the land that, after Judge Cooper’s death in 1809, fell to his son Isaac.  Here, the following year, Isaac Cooper built his home of brick.  Later, it changed in form, use, and ownership, but again became a family possession through the marriage of Mr. Theodore Keese with the daughter of George Pomeroy and Ann Cooper.  Renewing in all ways the charm and grace of its early days, “Edgewater,” as the home of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese, the grandson of Fenimore Cooper’s youngest sister Ann, commands at the foot of the lake its length, breadth, beauty, and inspiration.