Village Clears Title,

Muddied Since 1813,

On ‘Phinney’s Field’

(Editor’s Note: Due to a production error, the jump for this story is missing from this week’s Freeman’s Journal.)

By PATRICK WAGER • From The Freeman’s Journal

COOPERSTOWN – The ghost of Elihu Phinney – or at least his estate – may finally be put to rest.

The Village Board at its monthly meeting on Monday, Nov. 26 bought a 12-foot strip of land that splits the driveway leading from Elm Street into Doubleday Field; 30-foot long, the strip extends into left field.

According to Village Attorney Martin Tillapaugh, Doubleday Field – formerly Phinney’s cow pasture – was assembled in the 1930s from 39 different deed holders.

He compared assembling Doubleday Field to putting together a jigsaw puzzle.

In 2008, when the idea of a third-base reconstruction project gained steam, the village had the entire footprint surveyed, and couldn’t identify any owner of that particular strip of land.

A great deal of research, Tillapaugh said, traced the title back to Elihu Phinney himself, the editor from Canaan in Columbia County whom William Cooper recruited to found Cooperstown’s first newspaper, the Otsego Herald.

After Phinney died in 1813 – he and Cooperstown’s founder had a falling out in 1808, and Cooper started what became The Freeman’s Journal – his holdings, including the strip, went to his heirs.

By the 1930s, Tillapaugh said, there were at least 40 different Phinney heirs; the current heirs would probably number many more than that.

After discovering the strip, the village began paying the county $60 a year in property taxes.

To settle the matter, it was decided not to pay the taxes, let the county foreclose, then settle the ownership by paying $800 in back taxes, the lawyer said.

Also Monday night, village trustees completed SEQRA, the state Environmental Quality Review Act process, clearing the way for replacing the third-base bleachers with modern bleachers and a building that includes offices, restrooms and a public space suitable for wedding receptions.

Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch said HPARB, the village’s Historic Preservation & Architectural Review Board, this month gave preliminary approval to the project, pending review of final plans.

With the help of a $1 million grant through the office of state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, and another million from the Empire State Development Corp., work may begin in the spring of 1919, the centennial of Doubleday’s creation as a ballfield.

Although now debunked, Doubleday Field was considered the “Birthplace of Baseball” for almost a century.