Johann Adam Hartmann

Some consider him as a possible inspiration for Natty Bumpo, the main character in James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales.

His parents were Anna Maria Scholl, a native of Edenkoben and Johann Hartmann, a weaver who was originally from Switzerland.

Hartman left his hometown at the age of 16 to travel on the ship Boston from Rotterdam to Philadelphia.

He was the ideal of the fearless soldier in the tried and true militia of Tryon County.After the war Hartmann stayed in Herkimer County and lived of a disability pension, that he received as a veteran of the revolution.

[2] The Leatherstocking Tales (German: Lederstrumpf) were hugely popular in Germany and in 1934 Carl Suesser published an article in Westermanns Monatshefte in which he suggested that Cooper might have been inspired by Hartmann when he created the character of Natty Bumpo.

statue of Hartmann/Bumpo, part of the Lederstrumpfbrunnen in Edenkoben
memorial plaque in Edenkoben with a wrong date of birth