Monument Preservation Project Now Completed
COOPERSTOWN—The Cooper Monument is a historic landmark and focal point in Lakewood Cemetery, Cooperstown. Recently, the 30-foot marble monument commemorating James Fenimore Cooper was power washed by Humphrey Memorials Inc. of Herkimer, following environmental guidelines.
The project is an important part of the mission of the Lakewood Cemetery Association to preserve and restore monuments, gravestones and stone steps. The Cooper project was supported by members of the Cooper family, members of the James Fenimore Cooper Society and Lakewood lot owners.
The monument, of white Italian marble with a statuette of Leather-Stocking at the top, was sculpted by Robert E. Launitz and erected in Lakewood Cemetery in the spring of 1860.
The following history of the monument is excerpted from Ralph Birdsall’s “The Story of Cooperstown”:
“James Fenimore Cooper’s most famous hero, Natty Bumppo, carved in marble, rifle in hand, and with the dog Hector at his feet, stands at the top of the monument in Lakewood Cemetery on a rise of ground near the entrance, overlooking Otsego Lake from the east side, about a fifteen minute walk from the village of Cooperstown. That a monument commemorative of Cooper and Leather-Stocking should stand in the public cemetery, in which neither the author nor his supposed model is buried, is sometimes puzzling to visitors. It is said, however, that the site was chosen with reference to certain scenes in “The Pioneers.”
“The monument stands near the spot upon which the novelist, for the purpose of his romance, placed the hut of Natty Bumppo. It is not far below the road referred to in the opening scene of the tale, where the travelers gained their first glimpse of the village and stands at the foot of the wooded slope upon which, in the same story, Leather-Stocking shot the panther that was about to spring upon Elizabeth Temple.
“The monument itself was the result of an unsuccessful effort which was made shortly after Fenimore Cooper’s death in 1851 to erect in his memory a statue or monument in one of the public squares of New York City. To this end, ten days after his death, a public meeting of citizens of New York at which Washington Irving presided, was held in the City Hall; two weeks later the Historical Society of New York held a meeting in commemoration of Cooper; and on February 24, 1852, there was a great demonstration at Metropolitan Hall, with speeches by Daniel Webster and George Bancroft, and a memorial discourse by William Cullen Bryant. The raising of funds for a memorial, which these meetings set as their object, was not commensurate with the expenditure of rhetoric. The sum of $678 was contributed, chiefly at the meeting in Metropolitan Hall, and the committee organized to solicit subscriptions did nothing further.
“Six years later Alfred Clark and G. Pomeroy Keese of Cooperstown undertook to raise by subscription a sufficient sum to erect a monument in Cooper’s memory in or near the village in which he lived, having in view the transfer of whatever sum might be on deposit in New York toward the proposed monument. They raised $2,500, to which Washington Irving, acting for the defunct committee in New York, added the $678 already contributed.
“The monument was completed on April 13, 1860 with the addition of the statuette of Leather-Stocking on the top. A detailed description was published in ‘The Freeman’s Journal’ in 1926. ‘This monument is of white Italian marble resting on a granite base six feet square. The shaft including the base, die and cap from which it rises is about twenty-five feet in height, and is surmounted by a richly carved Corinthian capital. The four sides of the die are beautifully sculptured in bold relief; the front with the name of Fenimore Cooper, surrounded by a wreath of palm and oak branches, the latter with acorns, one falling and another fallen; the north side with appropriate naval devices, viz., the anchor, oars crossed, commander’s sword and spy glass; the south side with Indian emblems, such as bow and arrows and quiver, lance with scalp locks attached, tomahawk and necklace of bear claws. On the east side are literary emblems, books and manuscripts, with the student’s lamp just extinguished, an inkstand, the pen which has just been seized and born aloft by an eagle. On its capital stands the statuette of Leatherstocking four and a half feet high representing him in the act of loading his rifle and gazing intently in the direction of the game which the dog, (nearly a full-sized hound) by his side looks anxiously into his master’s face waiting for permission to bound away.”
The total subscription for the monument including the sum received from New York was $3,262.00, the greater part of which was subscribed in Cooperstown.
All are welcome to visit the monument in Lakewood Cemetery, especially when the afternoon sun highlights all the sculptured details. The cemetery is located at 182 County Highway 31, Cooperstown (East Lake Road), bordering the village limits.
Visit cooperstownlakewoodcemetery.com to learn more.