COOPERSTOWN - Franklin Evening News � July 1911

COOPERSTOWN AN INTERESTING VILLAGE and SOMETHING OF A FEW OF HER CITIZENS
By: John L. Hunter

The stranger of an observing turn of the mind strolling through the village of Cooperstown will wonder of the strange contrasts the town presents. Darkness and daylight are no more opposite from a residents point of view. Here you will find stately brick edifices and handsome frame structures overshadowing unpainted, weather-beaten cottages. On one side of the main street of the village the citizens wend their way over newly �laid cement pavement, while across the way fast-decaying board walks divide the lawns from the street. From an advantage viewpoint Cooperstown reminds one of Pittsburg, not in a commercial way, but in location. Lake, East and West Sugar creeks forming here the Ohio, or Sugar creek proper. Although the town has not the commercials stands of days gone by, yet it can be readily seen that there is a tendency on the part of the inhabitants to foster the seemingly-withered bay tree and it would not surprise us in the least to see Cooperstown become the leading town in the northern section of the county. There are a number of reasons for making this statement. The first is that Cooperstown lies in one of the richest farming sections of Venango county. Second the entire valley, from French creek forth, is watered from never-failing springs that not only furnish an abundant supply for domestic use and dairying, but power for manufacturing. Let the long-contemplated trolley line be built from Franklin to Meadville, by the way of Sugar Lake, and it will go a long way toward selling the much debated cause of the high cost of living in Oil City and Franklin, as there is no section of the state better adapted for gardening. The state road, when completed to Cooperstown, will mostly benefit the farmers of the valley, but what is most needed at this time is an electric line by which the farmers, dairymen and fruit and vegetable growers can get their products to market. Then let men of capital buy up the land surrounding Sugar Lake and build a summer resort. If this dream should come to pass, it would be bad for the merchants of Franklin during the hot weather, as it would depopulate the old town during that period.
With the reader's permission, we will again return to Cooperstown and throw some light on its present and past history, with a brief mention of some of its prominent citizens. It is not generally known, but there was a period in the history of Cooperstown when its population was in excess of Franklin at the time. This was during the days when it was the principal manufacturing center between Pittsburg and Erie.
First the site of an Indian village, then over the Red Man�s trail that led down to the conjunction of French creek with the Allegheny river came a white man by the name of William Cooper, who, pleased with the richness of the soil, settled the tract of land on which, in after years, was built the town that bears his name. Then came the Masons, Kingsleys, the Sweeneys and others of like venturesome spirits. The forests were felled, the clearing sown to grain. Being a millwright, Coopers threw a dam across the stream and erected a mill for grinding grain. For a number of years the settlement was known as Cooper�s Mills, to be changed to the present name with the laying out of the village in the year 1831. In those days the advantages a town held forth to those looking for a manufacturing site was not heralded by flaming posters and free transportation, but the news of the natural advantages Cooperstown held out to those wishing to invest in this line was carried to Pittsburg and Philadelphia, and soon the lone Indian, from his pose on the hilltop, saw massive buildings (for those days) standing where once stood picturesque wigwams and to his ear came the hum of whirring wheels. During the days when the woolen factory, iron foundry, grist mill and other lesser mechanical institutions were running the population exceeded that of the County Seat. With the increased population came the building of the Cooperstown Academy, said to be the best school of learning in the northern part of the state. It was at this school that many of the older citizens of Franklin received their learning. The old woolen mill, the grist mill and the Academy are still standing, monuments of the towns� past greatness.
In once sense, the citizens of Cooperstown are justified in being proud, and that is that no shame has ever been attached to the name of different firms dong business there, either in the past or present. The stopping of the wheels of the industries was not of their doing. It was the concentration of business on the lines of travel that led to the closing down of the diversified manufacturing plants. There is an old saying that history never repeats. It is repeating itself every day and the child is born that will see the regeneration of this inland village on a larger commercial basis of that in former years. Lest the reader may take from this article that Cooperstown, literally speaking, is defunct, we will state that at the present time we doubt if there is a town of its size in the country that does the volume of business it does. Any article in the line of hardware, groceries and provisions can be purchased at living prices.
The news representative while in the village had the pleasure of meeting the town�s oldest inhabitant, Mrs. Mary A. Booth, who resides in a brick mansion, colonial in architecture, standing amid a grove of tall firs on the outskirts of the village. Grandmother Booth was born 94 years ago. Her parents, George & Elizabeth Berlin, were residents of Pittsburg long years before the skyscrapers of today shut from the view of the inhabitants old Fort Pitt. Her father built and worked in the first blacksmith shop erected in Pittsburg. In 1816 her parents removed to Clarion county, selecting a tract of land near what is now known as Edenburg, on which they built a large log house. Two years later there was a re-survey of the Waterford and Susquehanna turnpike, better known in those days as �General Mead�s war trail�. A change from the old survey brought the road near the Berlin residence.
From Grandmother Booth, who has retained her memory and strength of body to a degree most remarkable, the writer was given a history of her girlhood days when travel to and from Pittsburg was made over a narrow trail blazed through the wilderness.
"Speaking of my mother,"said Mrs. Booth, "she was a splendid breadmaker and supplied the surveyors of the turnpike with this article of diet while they were marking out the line of travel through that section of the country. With the opening of the road to travel," continued the speaker, �my parents were led to open our home for the entertainment of travelers, not from mercenary motives, as we were as well off as the general run of the pioneers of those days, but from the fact that we had the accommodations and my parents would not turn anyone away that asked for food and shelter. The Berlin house, as it became known from Erie to Philadelphia, has sheltered men of statewide fame. There were thirteen of us children, and as we grew older we did what we could in helping father, who was in poor health, clear the ground for the plow. Bear and deer were plenty and my brothers kept the meat larder well supplied from the thick forests that surrounded our home. I remember one time that mother went for the cows that had strayed into the woods and hearing a noise behind her, was horrified to see coming toward her a large black bear. At the moment she ___ Bruin a big mastiff we owned appeared and bravely attacked the bear. Mother did not wait to see the outcome of the fight, but hurried home, driving the cows before her. One evening (I was a woman grown at the time) a good looking young man of English descent stopped at the hotel and asked for accommodations for the night. It fell out that I was selected to wait upon him at the supper table. I noticed he kept watching me and in conversation with the stranger I learned his name was Henry Booth and that he was engaged in the manufacturing of woolen goods at a place called Cooperstown, Venango county. After his departure the next morning I made the discovery that he had gone away without his watch, leaving it on a stand in his bed-room. I took charge of the time-piece, feeling pretty certain that he would return later on, which surmise proved true. Mr. Booth�s visits at our home became quite frequent during the months that followed our first meeting and early in the spring of 1842 I left my parental home to become his wife, a step I have never regretted, as he was a kind and indulgent husband and father. Our bridal trip of thirty miles from my old home to Cooperstown was made on horseback over the worst roads imaginable. We passed through Franklin, which at that time consisted of a few scattered houses set amid a virgin forest. My husband had already purchased a partly-completed dwelling that we took possession of upon our arrival at the village. With the woolen mill, grist mill and iron foundry, together with the nearby smelting furnaces running steadily and the academy of learning largely attended by outside students, Cooperstown, in that day, was one of the industrial centers of the county.
Accommodations for travelers were meager and my husband and I turned our dwelling, which we had enlarged, into a rooming and boarding house. The Booth Hotel was largely patronized by students, a number residing in Franklin, among whom were William Lamberton, Sarah Adams and Mary Hogue, Bent Hoover and Thomas Turner. The old hotel is still standing opposite the postoffice and at the present time is occupied by Dr. Cooper.
Land was cheap and my husband, who had amassed considerable wealth from the sale of the mill�s product, purchased a large tract adjoining the town on which he built the brick residence in which I expect to end my days. Yes, I have much to be thankful for. Since my husband�s death my every want has been carefully looked after by loving friends, and when the time comes for me to bid adieu to that which pertains to this life, I have the blessed assurance of meeting my departed husband and children in that home not built with hand, eternal in the heavens.�
In addition to having their wants supplied at the various merchandise establishments, which includes the best of wheat flour manufactured by A.P. Miles, from home-grown grain, the health of the citizens in the village and surrounding vicinity is carefully seen to by a corps of doctors consisting of Spencer, Crawford, Dille and VanNaten.
Dr. R.E. VanNaten was born in Cooperstown, where his common school education was rounded out at the academy. To fulfill the desire fostered by his parents, that of becoming a physician, he attended the Eclectic Medical College in Philadelphia, graduating with full honors in 1863. The War of the Rebellion was then at fever heat, and answering to the call of his country, Dr. VanNaten at once enlisted in the 12th Pennsylvania Cavalry, serving with distinction until the south laid down her arms. Discharged in August, 1865, he opened an office and drug store in Cooperstown. For almost half a century Dr. VanNaten has been identified with Cooperstown�s history, serving as postmaster for sixteen years and holding the office of school director continuously for twenty-one years. At the present time he is engaged in his profession with a fair practice.

Transcribed by Penny Haylett Minnick
minnick862@verizon.net

Disclaimer:there may be errors due to transcription of information from both early and late (current contributors) work.