The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1911-07-28
THE BENNINGTON PAGEANT.
Historical Scenes of Century and a
Half to Be Reproduced

Bennington in its early days had the
most stirring history of any Vermont
town and many of these scenes are to be
reproduced in a historical pageant to be
given by the people of Bennington Aug. II,
IA, 10 and IT, in celebration of the 150tll
anniversary of the settlement of the town
In addition to the scenes of depicting the
early history there will be several indca-
tive of the progress and changes brought
by succeeding years down to the present
day.
The historical pageant has long been ex-
tremely popular in Great Britain and con-
tinental Europe. introduced from there to
this country it has been developed and ex-
tended in its scope until it provides one of
the most delightful entertainment features
ever produced. Along with the amuse-
ment and scenic spectacle and splendor it
gives an opportunity to see almost perfect
reproductions of dramatic events of his
tory and in that way gives knowledge of
history and teaches patriotism as they can
never be learned from the dry pages of
printed books.
Bennington history is such that it offers
wonderful field for a historical pageant
In fact the great problem that confronts
the pageant committee is the wealth of
material available and all Of it SO striking
and interesting that it is found necessary
to lengthen the program in order to cover
the chief events of the history of the town,
which, in many respects, is the history of
the state of Vermont, for Bennington was
the parent town of the state and Benning-
ton men led in the activity and force that
produced here from the New Hampshire
Grants an independent commonwealth,
afterwards admitted to the ssterhood of
states.
Bennington was the first organized town
in what is now Vermont and the first to
achieve an individual force strong enough
to take the stand it did in the days when
Vermont was in the making. The first set
tiers of the town were young men from
Massachusetts and Connecticut. They
were an active, earnest, liberty loving,
daredevil and turbulent crowd who knew
their rights and could not be bluffed-not
even by the orders of the king and much
less by the minions of royal authority on
this side Of the ocean. That their leaders
were men Of ability is proved by the out
come Of their efforts.
It was the men of Bennington who or
gained the opposition to the rich and pow
erful colony Of New York and who took
the leading part in carrying this oposi-
ton through to success, from the day when
the sturdy pioneers raised a stuffed cata-
mount on pole to grin defiance at New
York authority to that other day, p years
later, when Vermont became the first state
added to the original 10. 1t was at Ben
nington at Landlord Fay's tavern that the
beech seaP' was devised and first applied
to the bare back of York justice. In this
connection it is well to remember even at
this late day that during the controversy
with New York the New York people
sympathized with the people Of Vermont.
The fight of the settlers for their lands
was not with their neighbor settlers along
the Hudson but with the land spectators
and politicians who fawned around Al
bany.
It was the men of Bennington who or
ganized the council of safety which after
ward made Vermont an independent re-
pubic and maintained that independence
for IA years. 1t was under Bennington
leadership that the towns which rebelled
against the new free state were bulldozed
into submission 1t was the Bennington
mob" that later stepped in and stopped an
attempt to divide Vermont between New
York and New Hampshire. It was Ben
nington that furnished four-fifths of the
company of resolute men who rescued
Remember Baker almost from under the
guns of Albany
1t was in Bennington in 1878 that the !
first declaration of independence penned |
in America was drawn and signed, and |
signed chiefly by Bennington men. It was
at Bennington, the home Of Seth Warner, |