The British are coming this weekend and the Forsyth-Warren Tavern Living History Farm and Museum in Cambria invites the public to join the invasion.
In recognition of America’s 250th anniversary, the restored tavern at 5182 Ridge Road at Warren’s Corners will host an encampment of Revolutionary War British troops and American militias who will demonstrate the details of the period.
Tyler Booth, executive director of the Forsyth-Warren Tavern, said the public will see tents on the museum’s front lawn as the British soldiers “commandeer” or seize the property and its supplies for militia use. Booth said in the early days of settlement, taverns were not only places for meals and overnight stays, but informal relay stations for news and the political thought of the times.
“The British were commandeering taverns and the Americans were commandeering taverns, too,” he said. “The locals would be serving the British, and be ordered to clear out their storage and second floor.”
Forsyth Tavern’s local re-enactors will play the role of the tavern’s staff, Booth said, dealing with the demands of the British and speaking to modern visitors as if they just stepped off a stagecoach. Booth said eventually, tavern staff will show their dissent with British rule.
“Our team is going to do some rebellious stuff,” he said. “We’re going to come in here and talk like the opposition,” Booth said some revolutionary literature may get quietly passed around to customers.
While there will be no horses with this army, Booth said soldiers will go about the day chopping firewood and playing stoolball, and 18th-century women will be cooking and have a tea social.
The encampment has been nearly six months in the making, said Amy Codding, a museum trustee and event organizer. Codding called up four re-enaction groups: the 64th Regiment of Foot, who portray the British; Marinus Willet’s Levies, who portray American uniformed soldiers; Brant’s Volunteers, who portray colonists and Native Americans loyal to the British; and Hoisington Rangers, who portray an irregular patriot militia.
Codding, a Sanborn resident, said she was a re-enactor portraying the American Revolution, Civil War, and World War I periods before Forsyth-Warren Tavern was restored and reopened. She said the revolutionary period is her favorite and she has remained a member of the 64th Regiment of Foot.
“I feel more at home in the clothing, more comfortable in what I’m doing,” she said.
The country’s 250th anniversary is a perfect opportunity to show what Forsyth-Warren Tavern has to offer as a living history museum and farm, Codding said.
“There are so many people who come every time we have something going on because they love it there,” she said.
Attending the encampment is free to the public. Ongoing demonstrations will include open fire cooking; inspections of soldiers’ packs; hands-on butter-making; traditional fire building techniques; exploration of historic military encampments; and a children’s corner with historical games and paper soldiers and dolls