David Shipman (colonist) the author's youth, Shipman would often appear at the Cooper home, "Otsego Hall", to offer the family some of his latest products. Susan Fenimore Cooper wrote that "rude equipments, dogs, and rifle, had much attraction for the lads of the house". James Cooper referred to Shipman in his "Chronicles of Cooperstown" as "the 'Leather Stocking' of the region, ... could at almost any time, furnish the table with a saddle of venison". David Shipman (colonist) David Shipman (1730 – 1813) is generally considered to be the real-life inspiration for James Fenimore Cooper's character Natty Bumppo in the "Leatherstocking Tales" along
The Deerslayer New York State, which is the setting of four of his five "Leatherstocking Tales". This novel introduces Natty Bumppo as "Deerslayer": a young frontiersman in early 18th-century New York, who objects to the practice of taking scalps, on grounds that every living thing should follow "the gifts" of its nature, which would keep European Americans from taking scalps. Two characters who actually seek to take scalps are Deerslayer's foil Henry March (alias "Hurry Harry") and the former pirate 'Floating Tom' Hutter, to whom Deerslayer is introduced "en route" to a rendezvous with the latter's lifelong friend Chingachgook (initially apparent in