This place stood at the center of Vermont history as the birthplace of the Green Mountain Boys, a route through which General John Stark and Colonel Seth Warner marched to the nearby 1777 Battle of Bennington, and a site of early industry and innovation. The lands that became Vermont were originally claimed by both New Hampshire and New York in the 1700s; although New York had the stronger legal claim, Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire moved faster by selling land grants across Vermont, leading settlers to arrive and improve their land. In July 1771, a posse of several hundred Yorkers left Albany under Sheriff Hendrick Ten Eyck, accompanied by the mayor and several aldermen, intending to evict grantee James Breakenridge and enforce New York's claim in a third attempt to settle the dispute by force. Breakenridge and a large band of neighbors prepared for them by fortifying his homestead and cutting loopholes into the walls, while six armed men waited at the bridge to meet Ten Eyck and his posse. After a parley, the sheriff and about 30 men were allowed to proceed to the homestead, but after more futile discussion Ten Eyck picked up an ax and threatened to force the door, only to be warned from inside, “attempt it and you are a dead man.” Realizing that Vermonters were gathered in the surrounding woods and that he was surrounded and outnumbered, Ten Eyck retreated with his men to Albany. The victorious farmers would eventually be called the Green Mountain Boys, and the resistance that began here in Bennington continued until Vermont declared its independence. As the Green Mountain Boys became more established and more aggressive in defending Vermonters' land titles, those who tried to enforce questionable claims could be “shown the Beech Seal,” meaning punished with a beech whip.

Photo: Steve Stoessel

Photo: Steve Stoessel

North Bennington, Vermont · USA