The Catamount Tavern was a tavern in Old Bennington, Vermont, United States. Originally known as Fay's House, it is marked now by a granite and copper statue placed in 1896. It was built 1769 and burned in 1871. During the tavern's 102 years of existence, it was the site of many important events in Vermont's colonial and revolutionary history.
It was, for instance, the site of the public hanging of New York grantee and Queen's Rangers member David Redding. Arrested for horse-theft, he managed to escape while being transported to Albany, New York. But he was re-arrested very soon and taken to Bennington, where, after a trial in the tavern, he was sentenced to be hanged in a field adjacent to the tavern. A local merchant, John Burnham, delayed the execution by pointing out that Redding had been tried by six rather than twelve men. Colonel Ethan Allen advised the crowd depart to return the day fixed for the execution in the act of the governor and council, adding with an oath, and according to Dr. John Spargo who wrote a book on the hanging which can be found in the Bennington Museum library, "you shall see somebody hung, for if Redding is not hung, I will be hung myself." Upon this assurance, the uproar ceased and the crowd dispersed. Redding was sentenced to hang on June 11, 1778 and his bones, after many years of being used for research and being kept in a drawer, were laid to rest 200 years later in the Old First Church Cemetery.
The name Catamount Tavern came about when Settlers from Bennington Vermont posted a stuffed catamount on the tavern's signpost to repel the New Yorkers who claimed their land. The Catamount served as headquarters for the Green Mountain Boys while making their plans against the New Yorkers and the British. Ethan Allen planned the capture of Fort Ticonderoga here; John Stark planned British General Burgoyne's defeat here, eventually leading to the Battle of Bennington. The Catamount was also the meeting place of Vermont's only form of government then, in 1775, the Vermont Council of Safety.[1]
Ethan Allen was an American farmer, businessman, land speculator, philosopher, writer, lay theologian, American Revolutionary War patriot, and politician. He is best known as one of the founders of Vermont and for the capture of Fort Ticonderoga early in the Revolutionary War. He was the brother of Ira Allen and the father of Frances Allen.
The Green Mountain Boys were a militia organization established in 1770 in the territory between the British provinces of New York and New Hampshire, known as the New Hampshire Grants and later in 1777 as the Vermont Republic. Headed by Ethan Allen and members of his extended family, it was instrumental in resisting New York's attempts to control the territory, over which it had won de jure control in a territorial dispute with New Hampshire.
North Bennington is an incorporated village in the town of Bennington in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,716 at the 2020 census.
Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature. Hanging has been a common method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and is the primary execution method in numerous countries and regions. The first known account of execution by hanging is in Homer's Odyssey. Hanging is also a method of suicide.
Bennington is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. It is one of two shire towns of the county, the other being Manchester. As of the 2020 US Census, the population was 15,333. Bennington is the most populous town in southern Vermont, the second-largest town in Vermont and the sixth-largest municipality in the state.
Manchester is a town in, and one of two shire towns of, Bennington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 4,484 at the 2020 census.
A gibbet is any instrument of public execution. Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet was also used as a method of execution, with the criminal being left to die of exposure, thirst and/or starvation. The practice of placing a criminal on display within a gibbet is also called "hanging in chains".
Seth Warner was an American soldier. He was a Revolutionary War officer from Vermont who rose to the rank of Continental colonel and was often given the duties of a brigade commander. He is best known for his leadership in the capture of Fort Crown Point, the Battle of Longueuil, the siege of Quebec, the retreat from Canada, and the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington.
The Bennington Battle Monument is a 306-foot-high (93 m) stone obelisk located at 15 Monument Circle, in Bennington, Vermont, United States. The monument commemorates the Battle of Bennington during the American Revolutionary War.
USS Catamount (LSD-17) was a Casa Grande-class dock landing ship of the United States Navy, named in honor of the Catamount Tavern in Old Bennington, which served as headquarters for Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys while making their plans against the New Yorkers and the British. The Catamount was also the meeting place of Vermont's only form of government then: the Vermont Council of Safety.
Mary Mabel Bennett Rogers was the last woman legally executed by Vermont. Rogers was hanged for the 1902 murder of her husband, Marcus Rogers.
To be hanged, drawn and quartered became a statutory penalty for men convicted of high treason in the Kingdom of England from 1352 under King Edward III (1327–1377), although similar rituals are recorded during the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272). The convicted traitor was fastened to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where he was then hanged, emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded, and quartered. His remains would then often be displayed in prominent places across the country, such as London Bridge, to serve as a warning of the fate of traitors. For reasons of public decency, women convicted of high treason were instead burned at the stake.
The Haldimand Affair was a series of negotiations conducted in the early 1780s between Frederick Haldimand, the British governor of the Province of Quebec, his agents, and several people representing the independent Vermont Republic.
The Westminster Massacre was an incident that occurred on March 13, 1775, in the town of Westminster, Vermont, then part of the New Hampshire Grants, whose control was disputed between its residents and the Province of New York. It resulted in the killings of two men, William French and Daniel Houghton, by a sheriff's posse, after a crowd occupied the Westminster Courthouse to protest the evictions of several poor farmers from their homes by judges and other officials from New York. The Westminster Massacre is regarded by some Vermont historians as a key event in the history of Vermont.
Samuel Robinson, Jr. was an early Vermont political and military leader who served an officer in the American Revolution and as Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives.
The Bisbee massacre occurred in Bisbee, Arizona, on December 8, 1883, when six outlaws who were part of the Cochise County Cowboys robbed a general store. Believing the general store's safe contained a mining payroll of $7,000, they timed the robbery incorrectly and were only able to steal between $800 and $3,000, along with a gold watch and jewelry. During the robbery, members of the gang killed five people, including a lawman and a pregnant woman. Six men were convicted of the robbery and murders. John Heath, who was accused of organizing the robbery, was tried separately and sentenced to life in prison. The other five men were convicted of murder and sentenced to hang.
Jonas Fay was a military and political leader of Vermont during its period as an independent republic, and during the early years of its statehood. Born in Massachusetts, he served in the militia during the French and Indian War, studied medicine, and became a physician. His father moved to Vermont during its formative years, and Jonas Fay moved with him. Fay was active in the Green Mountain Boys and their resistance to New York's efforts to assume jurisdiction over Vermont. In 1775, he served as a physician for the contingent of Green Mountain Boys that captured Fort Ticonderoga.
The Vermont Sesquicentennial half dollar, sometimes called the Bennington–Vermont half dollar or the Battle of Bennington Sesquicentennial half dollar, is a commemorative fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1927. The coin was designed by Charles Keck, and on its obverse depicts early Vermont leader Ira Allen, brother of Ethan Allen.
Joseph Fay was an American politician, militia officer, and businessman who served as Secretary of State of Vermont and was one of its principal founders.
The John G. McCullough Free Library is a library located in the village of North Bennington, Vermont. Established in 1921, the library is a member of the Catamount Library Network, a consortium of Vermont libraries with shared catalog and lending resources. The library serves North Bennington, Bennington, Shaftsbury, and surrounding towns.
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