James Fenimore Cooper -- A Re-Appraisal
Papers from the 1951 James Fenimore Cooper Conference
Cooperstown, New York
Cooper's Inheritance: The Otsego Country and its Founders
Lyman H. Butterfield*
(Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, VA)
Published as New York History, Vol. 35, No. 4 (October, 1954), pp. 374-411.
(Special Issue -- James Fenimore Cooper: A Re-Appraisal)
(Special Issue -- James Fenimore Cooper: A Re-Appraisal)
It reads:
"John Tunnicliff was a Derbyshire man who is said to have come to Otsego before the French and Indian War, though his first improvements probably date from about 1770, when he bought property in the Croghan Patent. The ruins of his house though not the first one he built) can still be seen on the Oaksville- Burlington road southwest of Canadarago Lake. In the years before the Revolution he built a house and barn, planted an orchard and an English garden, raised cattle, sheep, and bees, supplied the settlers moving into the Butternuts Valley, and made cheese that was marketed at Albany and became famous for its quality. Tunnicliff's memorial on his losses in the Revolution, written many pars later, states that early in the war he came over to the Mohawk and "Took the Oath Newtrality and signed a bond on promise of being protected." He was on his farm when Brant's destructive raid on Springfield took place in June 1778, and it was reported that Brant had used the farm as a base. A little earlier that year a fort had been built at Cherry Valley, and in July a garrison of Massachusetts troops (Ichabod Alden's 6th Continental regiment0 was posted there. General Stark at Albany promptly ordered retaliation against all who were aiding Brant, some of whom were believed to be residents of the "Old England" district. Captain William Hudson Ballard was accordingly sent out from the fort on August 10 with a strong scouting party toward the Butternuts. (On this scout, presumably, Sergeant James Butterfield of the 6th Massachusetts had his first glimpse of the country where he was to build a home and raise a family.) Ballard's men took fifteen residents of the Butternuts into custody, also two of Brant's men "Clothed and painted Like Indians" who had come up the Unadilla to collect cattle. Returning by way of Canadarago, Ballard also seized Tunnicliff and his son William, who had hidden their arms and drove up to the fort a hundred cattle, besides horses and sheep. The examinations of the captives repeatedly sounded the same refrain: Brant and his men had forced them at gunpoint to provide supplies for their raiding parties. All the captives were sent to Albany; the livestock was sold at auction and was presumably largely eaten by hungry soldiers. A fortnight later, having heard that the Albany committee for detecting conspiracies had released the captives and criticized the troops for unwarranted severity, Colonel Alden wrote Stark "that if they Send them Back, I will again take them Prisneors," for Alden was satisfied that as long as they resided between the lines "they will have it in their Power greatly to injure this garrison." Behind this squabble, which was eventually brought to the notice of the commander in chief himself, no doubt lay the rooted jealousy between the local New York authorities and the New England officers and troops. As for the Tunnicliffs, though they were permitted by the Albany Committee to go search for their stock, they found very few. Tunnicliff's memorial of 1798 relates in piteous style his losses and insults in the hands of that "gang of soldiers which consisted of old privateers men," and how he had returned to his farm seven years later to find "A Bed of Briers -- without either fence or Building....When I was in my Strength & prosperity in the space of Twenty Years I Never Cleared so Much value as I lost By Captain Ballard.: In spite of their tribulations, the Tunnicliff family survived and flourished, and during the 19th century they were among the substantial citizens of Richfield Springs and neighboring villages.
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