The Freeman’s Journal and Cooperstown go back to the beginning, creating a loyalty in the community that is impossible to duplicate.

The founder of The Freeman’s Journal, Judge William Cooper, was also Cooperstown’s founder, opening a store in 1786 and recruiting settlers to the region. The village that would bear the judge’s name was established in 1807, and the judge launched The Impartial Observer the following year, soon changing the name to The Cooperstown Federalist in support of the party of Washington, Adams and Madison. In 1818, the name was changed to The Freeman’s Journal, signifying a change in political loyalties: Jefferson’s supporters were known as “Freemen.”

Over the years, newspapers have come and gone, but The Freeman’s Journal has endured and today it is among the half-dozen oldest surviving weekly newspapers in the country: Some say third, some fifth; the scholarship on this topic is a little fuzzy.

Over the centuries, The Freeman’s Journal has absorbed the Cherry Valley Gazette, The Otsego Farmer, The Glimmerglass, The Hartwick Review, The Milford News, The Morris Chronicle and The Richfield Springs Mercury, (now revived and published under license by another corporation.)

Today, The Freeman’s Journal continues to serve the communities around Otsego Lake -- Cooperstown, Fly Creek, Cherry Valley, Hartwick, Middlefield, Milford, Roseboom, Springfield, and beyond.

JIM & M.J. KEVLIN
Proprietors

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