ode is given by Levi Beardsley. He says
that the trouble arose over Cochran's use of his fiddle during a
political campaign. Cochran stayed over night at Canandaigua, and when a
dance was got up, he obliged and amused the company by fiddling for
them. He beat Judge Cooper at the election for Congress, but whether
from the influence of music and dancing it is now too late to inquire.
However, it was alleged that Judge Cooper had either published or
remarked that Cochran had been through the district with his violin, and
had fiddled himself into office. This came to Cochran's ear and brought
him from Montgomery county to Cooperstown. He came on horseback, and
arrived while Judge Cooper was presiding as judge of the court of common
pleas. As Cooper issued from the court house, Cochran met him, and after
alluding to the election, informed the Judge that he had come from the
Mohawk to chastise him for the insult. When Cooper remarked that Cochran
could not be in earnest the latter replied by a cut with his cowskin.
Cooper then closed with his adversary, but Cochran being a large, strong
man they were pretty well matched for the scuffle. They were separated
by friends, and Cochran was afterward fined a small amount for breach
of the peace.[65]

At the early organization of the county there was considerable strife
between Cooperstown and Cherry Valley in regard to the location of
public buildings. It is said that Judge Cooper playfully remarked that
the court house should be placed in Cooperstown, the jail in Newtown
Martin (Middlefield), and the gallows in Cherry Valley.[66]

When Judge Cooper began holding court in Cooperstown in 1791 a number of
lawyers were attracted to the county seat, the first to take up
residence here being Abraham Ten Broeck of New Jersey, soon followed by
Jacob G. Fonda of Schenectady. Ten Broeck was the original of Van der
School, the parenthetical lawyer in _The Pioneers_, his compositions
having been remarkable for parentheses. A year later two others of the
legal profession were added to the village community, Joseph Strong, and
Moss Kent, brother of the celebrated Chancellor Kent. Dr. Nathaniel Gott
and Dr. Farnsworth coming at about the same time gave the villagers a
choice among three physicians, Dr. Thomas Fuller being the senior in
practice. The development of Cooperstown as a trading centre brought
Peter Ten Broeck and several other merchants here in 1791, followed
shortly afterward by Ren