File:Fenimore Cooper's grave and Christ churchyard (1911) (14770028003).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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of1799, was drowned in an heroic effort to save aman who had fallen beneath some flood wood inthe Susquehanna. Says the epitaph: 54 Churchyard Miscellanea Striving anothers life to fave.He funk beneathe the fwellingwave. No grave in the churchyard except Coopersreceives more attention from strangers than thatof Scipio, an old slave, whose beautifully let-tered tombstone is near that of Captain How-ard. It is inscribed as follows: In memory of Scipto, an aged slave, a native ofAfrica who died March 27th, 1799. Oft did he. Shivering, Call, to blefs the handThat would beftow a Cordial to his wants;Oft have I dropd a tear to fee his forrowd faceCaft fmiles around,On thofe whofe feeling heartsHad, for a MinuteMade him forgetThe Hardnefs of his fate. His venerable Beard was thin and white;His hoary Head befpoke his length of Days:His Piteous tales of Woe,While bending oer his Staff, He did RelateWere heard in penfive Mood,By ThofeWho lookd beyond his tatterd garb.And faw his Manv Sorrows. I
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Photo by Telfer No grave, except Coopers, receives more attention 56 Churchyard Miscellanea North of this stone, after passing three inter-vening tombs, one comes upon an odd inscriptionthat marks the grave of a fourteen-year-old boywho was drowned December 3, 1810. Thus were Parents bereavdof a dutiful son and communityof a promising youth, whilepursuing with assiduity theact of industry. One might be curious to know what this act ofindustry was that cost the life of young GarrettBissell, but history is silent. Joe Tom, a negro whose tomb fronts the eastend of the churchyard, was for more than a scoreof years sexton of Christ church, and when hedied, in 1881, had been for half a century a uniquefigure in the life of the village. Joe Tom wasalways the general factotum at public entertain-ments and had won a title as the politest negroin the world. Music of a lively sort he scrapedfrom the fiddle or beat upon the triangle. He waschief usher at meetings, chief cook at picnics, astentori

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