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From the Otsego Herald for Saturday, July 21, 1810 Compiled, with comments
BY HUGH C. MACDOUGALL
COOPERSTOWN CONGREGATION Resolved, Unanimously, That it shall be the duty of the Trustees of the UNITED CONGREGATION, of the settlement in and about Cooperstown, to collect all monies due them on Pews, Subscriptions and Notes.
Agreeably, therefore, to the above vote of the Society, the Trustees request all persons to pay their arrears to GEORGE POMEROY, Treasurer, on or before the first day of August next, otherwise suits will be commenced against delinquents.
The Trustees have three or four good Pews which they offer at private sale.
Pews, No. 15, 16, 34, 35, 50 & 51, which are all near the door, are free, and may be occupied by any person or persons free of expense. THO’S. FULLER, NATHAN DAVISON, EZEKIEL KELLOGG, HINCKLEY WALKER, GEO. POMEROY, DANIEL CARR, Trustees. Cooperstown, July 3, 1810.
COMMENT: This is the Congregation of the Presbyterian Church, whose church building had recently been completed. The trustees listed were all Presbyterians, though George Pomeroy , son-in-law of William Cooper, switched to the Episcopal church in later life. Although most churches reserved a few pews ``near the door’’ for the poor and/or the general public, most church pews were sold or rented to specific families.
ELOPEMENT
Whereas my wife Elsy, has behaved in a very improper and unbecoming manner, and has left my bed and board and taken with her an infant child, by the name of Gardner -- Therefore all persons are hereby forbid harboring or trusting the said Elsy and her son Gardner on my account, as I am determined to pay no debts of her contracting after this date.
RICHARD GREENE. By his Attorneys, William Greene & Richard Pray. Richfield, July 5, 1810.
COMMENT: Richard Greene had made his will in January, 1810, and did not change it before his death in 1815. He had married a Lillie Pray in 1785, whose brother was a witness to his will, so she is probably the same as Elsy. Another of his sons, Richard Green, born about 1803, was in 1823 (and thus only 20 years old) placed under the guardianship of one Veeder Green.
NEW LAWYER IN TOWN
BENJAMIN APLIN, Attorney at Law, Has commenced business one door east of Dr. FULLER’S Office. June 16, 1810.
COMMENT: Benjamin graduated from Union College in 1809. He was the son of James Aplin (1745-1809) and Thankful Cary Aplin (1749-1823) of Hartwick, and is named in his father’s will.
What happened to him I have been unable to determine; his advertisement appeared for several weeks, but then he disappears entirely from view. Of his father James it was said, that when William Cooper named him as a local judge, he remarked to his wife: ``My dear, last night you slept with James Aplin; to-night with James Aplin, Esquire; God bless my good friend Judge Cooper.’’
TURNPIKE ELECTION
NOTICE is hereby given, That an election for thirteen Directors in the company of the President, Directors, and second company of the Great Western Turnpike Road, will be held at the house of Jared Skinner, Inn-keeper, in Green street, in the city of Albany, on Tuesday the 14th day of August next, at 11 o’clock in the forenoon. By order of the Directors, Christian Miller, Sec’ry. Albany, 10th July, 1810.
COMMENT: The Second Great Western Turnpike ran west from Cherry Valley, via Cooperstown, to Sherburne, following what is now State Route 80. Like most other turnpikes, it was never a great success.
NEW AT THE BOOKSTORE
Just Received, And for sale at the Otsego Bookstore, The Conductor Generalis Clerk’s Magazine, &c, &c.
COMMENT: The first item is in all probability ``A New Conductor Generalis: Being a Summary of the Law Relative to the Duty and Office of Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, Coroners, Constables, Jurymen, Overseers of the Poor, &c. &c.....’’ Albany: D. & S. Whiting, 1803. This very useful book for rural areas (you can read it on Google Books) had been in print in America since at least 1711, though this edition had been revised to accord with American rather than British law, as well as with New York State law.
The ``Clerk’s Magazine’’ was also a frequently revised guide to officials, dating back in England to at least 1739. This edition may well have been ``The Clerk’s Magazine: containing the most useful and necessary forms of writings, which commonly occur between man and man ... and other instruments, calculated for the use of the citizens of the United States’’ Albany: C.R. & G. Webster, 1803.
