Elihu Phinney

Who was Elihu Phinney?

Elihu Phinney was the first printer in Cooperstown, New York. In the early 1790s he lived in Canaan, Columbia County, New York, where he published the Columbian Mercury, and Canaan Repository of Rural Knowledge.

Phinney was invited to Cooperstown by Judge William Cooper, the wealthy land developer who had established the Otsego County, New York village. There in 1795, Phinney opened a printing and publishing business. In his weekly newspaper, The Otsego Herald; or, Western Advertiser, Phinney wrote that he, "in the winter of 1793, penetrated a wilderness, and broke a track, through a deep snow, with six teams, in the 'depth' of winter, and was received with a cordiality, bordering on homage."

It is said that James Fenimore Cooper, Judge Cooper's son and future novelist, frequented Phinney's print shop and there, for his own enjoyment, learned the art of setting type. In fact, James Fenimore Cooper's daughter Caroline married Phinney's grandson, Henry Frederich Phinney, in 1849.

Early on, through his publications, Phinney provided political support for the Federalist Judge Cooper, but by the end of the first decacde of the 19th century, Phinney had begun to support the Clintonian Republicans who by then had become a majority in the county. Besides endorsing Cooper's political opponents, Phinney went so far as to sponsor a petition to change the name of Cooperstown to "Otsego Village."