and all such as desired to obtain
something for nothing. The doctor had a large acquaintance among
unfortunate outcasts, for he regularly visited the county jail to talk
and pray with its inmates. The extent to which Dr. Sill aided the
worthless was a cause of grief to the judicious, but he was not really,
as some supposed, the dupe of impostors. He was well aware of the
probably unworthy character of many to whom he gave assistance, but
there was always an element of doubt in such cases, and his theory was
that it was better to aid ninety-nine humbugs than to take the risk of
closing the door against one who was deserving of help.

Dr. Sill was much consulted in relation to the civic and religious
welfare of the community. His conscientious habit of deciding in all
things, great and small, upon the absolutely right course of action gave
him an air of slowness and hesitation in manner. He would stand
listening intently, without comment, to violent arguments for and
against a project, turning toward each speaker the frank dark eyes that
illumined his pale countenance. When it came to his decision he had a
way of planting his right heel forward, and compressing his lips, which
he then opened with a slight smack of determination, giving quiet
utterance to his judgment. It was usually quite impossible to move him
from a decision thus made, and those who misinterpreted the mildness of
his manner soon learned that the man himself was adamant.

The first years of the twentieth century included an era of new
buildings. Just above Leatherstocking Falls, in 1908, William E. Guy of
St. Louis built and established the beautiful summer home at
Leatherstocking Farm. The remains of the old grist mill at the falls
were torn down, and the stones from the foundation were used in the new
building.

In 1910, James Fenimore Cooper of Albany, grandson of the novelist,
built Fynmere (the name being an old form of the word Fenimore) as a
country residence. Its site on the hillside above the road that curves
about the southern end of Mount Vision commands a superb view down the
Susquehanna Valley, while the eastern windows of the house look into the
heart of the ascending forest. The use of native field stone in the
construction of this house is most effective, and at once gave to the
residence, when fresh from the builder's hands, the air of being long
habituated to the spot, and quite in harmony with the antiquities that
abound in the app