treets, and after they removed to Hudson the daughter
was sent back to Cooperstown to attend the boarding school which was
conducted for a time in Isaac Cooper's old house at Edgewater. It was
through these associations that Edward Clark and his bride, after their
marriage in 1836, began to be frequent visitors in Cooperstown.

In the year 1848 Isaac M. Singer had become a client of Jordan & Clark
in New York City. He was an erratic genius, and had taken up various
occupations without much success, besides having invented valuable
mechanical devices which had brought him no profit. The form of
sewing-machine that he invented, and which has ever since been
associated with his name, was not profitable at first, and under
Singer's management the title to the invention became involved, and was
likely to be lost. In this emergency the inventor applied to his legal
adviser, Clark, to advance the means to redeem an interest of one-third
in the sewing-machine invention and business, and to hold that share as
security for money advanced. Afterward was formed the co-partnership of
I. M. Singer & Co., in which Clark was the legal adviser and half
owner. The business was carried on by this firm with great success from
1851 to 1863, during which period Edward Clark established his residence
in Cooperstown. After Singer's death Clark became president of the
Singer Manufacturing Company.

[Illustration: FERNLEIGH]

Edward Clark spent many winters in Europe, residing at different times
in Paris and in Rome, but his summers were usually devoted to
Cooperstown, and the present stone house at Fernleigh was his summer
home for twenty-three years. When this house was erected it was regarded
as a wonder. It took four years in building, and was indeed of
remarkable workmanship, with substantial masonry and the most exquisite
elaborations of woodwork. But it had the misfortune to be built in the
"black walnut period," when taste in domestic architecture was at a low
ebb, so that much of the interior, and some of the exterior, has since
been altered. The stone building southwest of the house was built as a
Turkish bath.

In 1873, Edward Clark purchased Fernleigh-Over from the Bowers estate,
and from time to time added to his property in Cooperstown, notably in
the purchase of farms on either side of the lake. He became much
identified with the interests of the village, and built the Hotel
Fenimore.

Edward Clark was entranced by Otsego La