Fort Plain Museum & Historical Park

Daniel Webster called America’s colonial taverns “The headquarters of the Revolution.” There is no doubt that taverns were the center of social activity where political discussions were commonplace. Travelers brought news of the outside world fueling discussions both political and otherwise. Sam Adams planned the Boston Tea Party at Boston’s Green Dragon Tavern. Thomas Jefferson sat in the Indian Queen in Philadelphia working on a draft of the Declaration of Independence. George Washington’s emotional farewell to his officers took place at Fraunces Tavern in Manhattan. Patrick Henry and the Virginia patriots pledged their lives to liberty or death at the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, the first building of that colonial town’s restoration.

For the people of Colonial America, the taverns were the place where folks kept in touch with each other, where they got the news and the gossip. Taverns and public houses served public needs. They were the mail drops before the days of post offices. At a critical time in American history they served as a web of national unity connecting Committees of Correspondence across the 13 colonies. Tavern to tavern, from Boston to Philadelphia, the Committees stirred the fires of independence.

The Tryon Committee of Safety met in several taverns in the Palatine and Canajoharie districts. At the first meeting of the Palatine District on August 24, 1774, nearly two years before the Declaration of Independence, the committee sat down at the Tavern of Adam Louck’s in Stone Arabia and drafted there a set of Resolutions that were to govern their actions and declare the unanimity of their cause.