HISTORY OF THE CABIN 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the French and Indian wars ended in 1760 in eastern New York, permanent settlements began soon thereafter. In 1761, England’s King George III granted the newly formed Cambridge patent to fifty-eight men, and many Scotch-Irish Presbyterian Covenanter immigrants began to settle within the patent.

 

In 1764, Reverend John Cuthbertson founded the First Reformed Presbytery in America at Middle Octorara, Pennsylvania. From that base, he ventured forth into the New England wilderness, walking or riding horseback over seventy thousand miles during his 39-year ministry to share the gospel and officiate baptisms and marriages to the Scotch and Irish pioneers who were scattered throughout the Mid-Atlantic and New England. Phineas Whiteside, an elder in Cuthbertson’s church, accompanied him in the summer of 1764 on one of his first trips north, traveling as far as Cambridge, NY. During this month-long journey, Whiteside helped preach in many places along the way and held the first church service in this area.   

 

In the spring of 1766 Cuthbertson and Whiteside repeated the journey, but on this occasion, Phineas brought his wife Ann Cooper and his six children who ranged in age from two and a half to thirteen years. Ann’s brother William Cooper Sr. (45) and his two sons John (15) and William (9) accompanied them.  When they reached Cambridge, they stayed and settled in the area. Both Phineas and William Sr. cleared land and built log homes, starting a settlement on the west side of the Cambridge Patent on land owned by Edmund Wells. Wells, one of the original patentees, was the only patentee who actually settled on the patent. 

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Rev. Cuthbertson writes in his diary (a valuable source of dates and insights into the mundane but fascinating details of daily life) that he rode from Cambridge village eight miles to the home of Phineas at "Maloperd." So far as is known, this settlement name was never used in later years. The cluster of log houses, to include Whiteside’s and Cooper’s, were also known as "the Whiteside Settlement" for a time. The log home that is now located on South Dominion Vineyard was one of these original houses, believed to have been built by William Cooper Sr. and his sons sometime between April 1766 and September 1767. It is likely that Cooper’s wife, Jane (Wayland), did not make the trip from Pennsylvania until sometime after the birth of their daughter Mary in 1767 who was born in Pequea, Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. She likely stayed with her father-in-law, John Cooper Sr., who also lived in the Pequea Valley at that time, and rejoined her husband sometime later after the log home was finished and ready for a very young child.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By 1775, John and William Jr. had joined in the fight for our nation’s independence as patriots, serving with the Albany Militia in the 16th Albany County Militia Regiment in Van Schaick's Battalion alongside Phineas’ sons. Attested to be ‘zealous partisans,’ John and William Jr. fought under Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen, saw service at Fort Ticonderoga and Lake Champlain, and volunteered as Indian scouts or spies. John was commissioned as an officer and fought, along with William Jr., in most of the key battles of the Revolution, including the Saratoga Campaign; Battle of Bennington; Siege of Fort Stanwix and the Battle of Ft Ann. In the fall of 1777, the Cooper’s had to abandon their log house as mercenary Mohawks, hired by British Gen. John Burgoyne, raided the countryside. Burgoyne paid gold for each scalp taken from the women and children of the patriot’s families living along Burgoyne’s march through Cambridge.  Many of the Mohawk raiders also burned the hastily abandoned homes, the charred scars of the Cooper house beech rafters bearing testimony to those efforts. Fortunately, these raiders did not succeed in destroying the Cooper’s home, and when they returned, they fought with their fellow patriots to defeat Burgoyne’s army at the Battle of Bennington.

 

Nearly thirty years after settling in Cambridge, Phineas Whiteside died in 1793.  He and his wife Ann Cooper are buried in the Whiteside cemetery not far from this log house. Their graves are marked by large marble stones set on brick walls about two and one-half feet high, and covering the entire grave. Phineas’ epitaph reads: 

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“Phineas Whiteside, by birth an Hibernian, was born Jan. 31, 1716. He saw this and many parts of America a wilderness. He saw Columbia struggling for liberty, in which he took an active part. He saw her successful. Died April 1st, 1793.”

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William Cooper Sr lived approximately a decade longer, dying in 1805 and laid to rest in Whiteside cemetery as well.  After the Revolution, John and William Jr returned to Cambridge and their families, living and working there until their deaths.  John and his wife, Lydia are buried at Whiteside cemetery. William Jr, with his wife Denshe, also remained in Cambridge, living in the log home and farming the surrounding land until he could no long drive a horse drawn plow.  He spent the twilight years of his life as a cobbler. Many of the worn-out shoes he repaired were found in the attic of the log house when it was disassembled for moving to its present site. William Jr. outlived all his wives, children and relatives and died in the spring of 1849 at age 92 in the log cabin he built alongside his father.