Caretakers cottage at Leatherstocking Farm (original) (raw)

The caretaker's cottage and entry sign for the Leatherstocking Farm on the outskirts of Cooperstown NY. The Leatherstocking Falls, a landmark in the James Fenimore Cooper books, is also on this private estate. To reach the main estate grounds one must drive over a private bridge spanning the 50' (or so) high rocky falls.

The 80+ acre estate, which has been held by the same family for generations, has a large shingle style mansion which used to have a birdseye view of Lake Otsego. The caretakers cottage, mansion, barns and other structures were created by architect the firm of Squires & Wynkoop, Architects and later remodeled by Frank P. Whiting. The estate's gardens and landscaping were done by the all-female firm of Wodell & Cottrell in the 1930s. Further on Lake Otsego is a stone boathouse and tennis court adjacent (north) to "Sam Smith's Boatyard" which is part of this estate. "Sam" Smith (W.T. Sampson Smith Jr) was Dorothy's son who predeceased her in 1994.

The property was most notably owned by Dorothy Stokes Bostwick Campbell (1899 - 2001) heiress to the Standard Oil fortune but whose family also had marital ties to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune, Pepperidge Farm foods and others products.

(Her grandfather, Jabez Abel Bostwick, was a founder and treasurer of the Standard Oil Company of New York and a partner of John D. Rockefeller. Her father, Albert C. Bostwick, was the holder of several early automobile speed records. Her mother Mary (nee Stokes) was related to the Clark family of Cooperstown.)

Ms. Campbell, a lifelong artist, was in addition to being a skilled yachtsman also the first woman to hold a helicopter pilot's license. This property, protected under conservation easements, was at one time contemplated to be given as a gift to the Cooperstown Art Association but that never materialized. Today it is owned by one of Dorothy's daughters, Dorothy Rudkin**, known as "Dotsie" who placed most of the estate's lands into protective easement via the Otesgo Land Trust.

[As an aside Dorothy Rudkin was once married to Henry Rudkin Jr. whose mother Margaret founded and owned Pepperidge Farm Inc, the baking firm. Margaret & Henry Rudkin Sr. sold the business to the Campbell Soup Company in 1960, exchanging the Pepperidge Farm assets for Campbell stock worth (at the time) about $28 million. ]

Dorothy's late brother George H. "Pete" Bostwick is in the Polo Hall of Fame and also National Racing Hall of Fame as a jockey. Another brother, Dunbar, was also an accomplished polo player, inventor and owned several highly successful harness race horses. She had one sister, Lillian, a successful interior designer and race horse owner as well who married Odgen Phipps, an heir to the Carnegie Steel Company fortune. Among Lillian's daughters (so Dorothy's neice) was future fashion icon Lilly Pulitzer.

Dorothy's last husband was Joseph Campbell (1900 - June 1994), former U S. Comptroller General. He ws appointed as Comptroller General by President Eisenhower and was head of the GAO (General Accounting Office) from December 14 1954 until July 31 1965.

** Dorothy Sampson Smith Rudkin, most recently living in Florida Gardens in Lake Worth, FL died peacefully at the Otsego Manor in Cooperstown, NY, on August 9, 2010 after a brief illness.

[From her obituary: Her forebears include great-grandfathers Henry S. Stokes, president of the Manhattan Life Insurance Company; Jabez A. Bostwick, a founding partner and treasurer of the Standard Oil Trust; Admiral W.T. Sampson, USN, who commanded the US naval fleet in the blockade of Havana during the Spanish-American War; and Charles Smith, who served as Surgeon General of the Confederate States of America. ]

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Uploaded on June 19, 2009

Taken on June 15, 2009