less buildings that
afflict all new countries," says Fenimore Cooper, "and contained two
school rooms below, a passage and the stairs; while the upper story was
in a single room."

The first school in the village had been opened a year or two earlier by
Joshua Dewey, a graduate of Yale, who taught Fenimore Cooper his A B
C's. He was succeeded as village schoolmaster by Oliver Cory. The latter
assumed charge of the new Academy. The school exhibitions of this
institution in which Brutus and Cassius figured in hats of the cut of
1776, blue coats faced with red, of no cut at all, and matross swords,
were long afterward the subject of mirth in the village. Fenimore
Cooper, at one time a pupil in the Academy, took part in a school
exhibition, and at the age of eight years became the pride of Master
Cory for his moving recitation of the "Beggar's Petition"--acting the
part of an old man wrapped in a faded cloak and leaning on his staff.

A reminiscence of old Academy days is connected with the first
considerable musical instrument in the village. Judge Cooper had brought
from Philadelphia a large mechanical organ of imposing appearance, which
he placed in the hall of the Manor House. When the organ was first put
up and adjusted a rehearsal of country dances, reels, and more serious
music, was enjoyed not only by the family gathered to hear it, but the
loud tones floated from the windows and into the school room of the
Academy in the next street. As the strains of _Hail Columbia_ poured
into the school room, Master Cory skillfully met a moment of open
rebellion with these words: "Boys, that organ is a remarkable
instrument. You never heard the like of it before. I give you half an
hour's intermission. Go into the street and listen to the music."[68]

The Academy, containing at that time the largest room in the village,
was as much used for other purposes as for those of education. The
court, on great occasions, was sometimes held here. It was used
impartially for religious meetings and for balls. The Free Masons of the
village, who had secured a charter for Otsego Lodge in 1795, held a
religious service, followed by dinner, and a ball, in the Academy, on
the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, December 27, 1796. Of this
occasion Jacob Morris writes, "The brilliancy exhibited at Cooperstown
last Tuesday--the Masonic festival--was the admiration and astonishment
of all beholders. Upwards of eighty people sat down to one table--so