File:Fenimore Cooper's grave and Christ churchyard (1911) (14563510138).jpg

Identifier: fenimorecoopersg00bird (find matches)
Title: Fenimore Cooper's grave and Christ churchyard
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Birdsall, Ralph, 1871-1918
Subjects: Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851 Cooperstown, N.Y. Christ church. (from old catalog)
Publisher: New York, F.H. Hitchcock
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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all othersin the churchyard, seem quite awry. In realitythev alone are correct; all the rest are wrong. A Frolicsome Epitaph Objects of mirth are not sought in graveyards.Yet there is one tomb in Christ churchyard overwhich there has been laughter more than tears.It is the grave of Jenny York, a negro slave,whose tombstone appears at the east end of thechurchyard, in the part reserved for the burial ofmembers of her race, of whom there were a numberin Cooperstown in early days. Among the moreprosperous colonists some were slaveholders, andthe institution was not yet regarded with generaldisapproval. On the day before the consecrationof Christ church, in 1810, the following advertise-ment appeared in the Otsego Herald, one of theCooperstown newspapers: FOR SALE. (For want of employment) A stout healthy negro, 18 years of age. He has beenused to farming business. For terms inquire of thisoffice. The same new^spaper stated, under the date ofOctober 13, 1810, that there were then twenty-
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Photo by Telfur One tomb over which there has been more laughterthan tears 42 A Frolicsome Epitaph four negroes in the village, of whom twelve wereslaves. Jenny York was a cook in the family of theHon. Samuel Nelson, for many years a justice ofthe United States Supreme Court and a residentof Cooperstown. Like many of her kind, Jennycombined great culinary skill with a keen senseof property-right in whatever passed through herhands. Choice provisions and delicacies disap-peared through systematic dole at the kitchendoor, or sometimes being reserved against aholiday, re-appeared to furnish forth a banquet inthe servants hall, to which Jennys dusky friendswere bidden, and made the welkin ring withwassail and good cheer. The current story is that, when Jenny died,the negroes of the village chose for her grave anepitaph to extol, without altogether approving,her left-handed generosity. The stone is inscribedas follows: JENNY YORK Died Feb. 22, 1837. Aet. 50 yea. She had her faults butwas k

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