That is probably the reference. Deerslayer et al. were very popular at the time. The boundary between the wild and civilization was fairly sharp but kept moving west fairly rapidly. Ismail Bush and ax might have been a parallel to Danl Boone or Johnny Appleseed (Swedenborgian), who moved ahead of the boundary or with it. By 1886 there was no frontier, officially gone per US Census, so no more frontiersmen.
Yes, I’m fond of the Natty Bumppo books, although you have to take them as they are.
Mark Twain wrote a really funny essay called “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” on this subject, which I read in school and which somewhat put me off “The Deerslayer.”
http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/1131/
The bit about the Indians creeping along the dead tree to drop on Bummpo’s canoe is particularly killing.