ing to the
defence of the village against a savage foe. Plans were soon made to
repel the attack. Muskets were made ready for service. Some boys were
sent into the village for powder, others for lead from which they were
soon actively engaged in moulding bullets. A detachment was sent to
remove to the house all effects from the schoolroom which stood near the
gate, and the doors and windows of the house were strongly barricaded.
Preparations were made to patrol the village at night, and the school
was detailed into squads, who were to protect the principal streets.
Sentries paced from the house to the gate, and from Christ churchyard
to the corner of Main Street, while outposts were stationed across the
river who were to give warning of the enemy's approach by the discharge
of a musket. The younger boys were left at home on guard at the doors
and windows of the house. As the midnight hour approached Major Duff
sallied forth and inspected the disposal of his forces. During the long
winter darkness of that night the boys marched up and down the village
streets, with imaginations so fearfully wrought up as to deny the need
of sleep which lay heavy upon them. If any of the inhabitants of the
village sympathized in this watchfulness in their behalf, or kept awake
to see what was going on, there was no evidence of it. The boys were
left to their vigil. They passed the night in anxious watching. No
Indians appeared, and all danger was dispelled by the rays of the rising
sun.

Too much prosperity was the ruin of Duff's school. It became so
successful that the principal neglected duty for pleasure, leaving the
school in charge of subordinates. Then, in less than five years from its
beginning, it failed. At the outbreak of the Mexican War, Duff obtained
a captain's commission in the United States Army, and when last seen by
his old friends he presented an imposing appearance as he rode down
Broadway in New York at the head of his company, with martial music and
flying colors, to embark for Vera Cruz.[119]

George A. Starkweather purchased Apple Hill in 1847, and lived there
until he sold it in 1856 to Edward Clark. The latter had been attracted
to Cooperstown as at one time the home of his distinguished
father-in-law, and law-partner, Ambrose L. Jordan. Mrs. Clark, who was
Jordan's eldest child, was born while the Jordans were resident in
Cooperstown in the house which still stands at the northwest corner of
Main and Chestnut s