The Catamount Tavern was a tavern in Old Bennington,

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

, 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 member of the

Queen's Rangers The Queen's Rangers, also known as the Queen's American Rangers, and later Simcoe's Rangers, were a Loyalist military unit of the American Revolutionary War. Formed in 1776, they were named for Queen Charlotte, consort of George III. The Queen ...

, David Redding. Arrested for horse-theft, he managed to escape while being transported to

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...

. 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 The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

on the tavern's signpost to repel the New Yorkers who claimed their land. The Catamount served as headquarters for the

Green Mountain Boys The Green Mountain Boys were a militia organization first 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 (which late ...

while making their plans against the New Yorkers and the British. Ethan Allen planned the capture of

Fort Ticonderoga Fort Ticonderoga (), formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century star fort built by the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain, in northern New York, in the United States. It was constructed by Canadian-born French milit ...

here;

John Stark Major-General John Stark (August 28, 1728 – May 8, 1822) was an American military officer who served during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. He became known as the "Hero of Bennington" for his exemplary service at the Batt ...

planned British

General Burgoyne General John Burgoyne (24 February 1722 – 4 August 1792) was a British general, dramatist and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1761 to 1792. He first saw action during the Seven Years' War when he participated in several bat ...

's defeat here, eventually leading to the

Battle of Bennington The Battle of Bennington was a battle of the American Revolutionary War, part of the Saratoga campaign, that took place on August 16, 1777, on a farm owned by John Green in Walloomsac, New York, about from its namesake, Bennington, Vermont. A r ...

. The Catamount was also the meeting place of Vermont's only form of government then, in 1775, the Vermont Council of Safety.

Notes

Bibliography

*(1892). ''Appletons' Annual Cyclopædia and Register of Important Events of the Year''. New York: Appleton. *Holbrook, Stewart (1940). ''Ethan Allen''. New York: Macmillan. *Perry, A. H. (1891). '' Scotch-Irish in New England''. Boston: Cushing. *Wilbur, LaFayette (1899). ''Early History of Vermont''. Jericho, Vt: Roscoe. {{Coord, 42.885894, -73.21368, display=title Buildings and structures in Bennington, Vermont 1769 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies Taverns in the United States Drinking establishments in Vermont