The Tryon County Committee of Safety

Years before the first shots of the Revolution were fired, a wave of activism swept through the Mohawk Valley.

Date: Saturday, March 28 at 2 p.m.

Local leaders didn’t just protest—they organized. Forming the Tryon County Committee of Safety, these pioneers created a “shadow government” that managed everything from military defense to local law. Terry McMaster will share the story of everyday people who worked behind the scenes to spark a movement and forever change our region.

In August of 1774 Mohawk Valley activists began organizing to resist British oppression and to communicate and coordinate with like minded folks in the committees of New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Committees were formed for Tryon and Albany counties. Schenectady had its own large committee as well. Lucky for us, most of the minutes of these committees were preserved and have been published, and the thoughts and actions of these revolutionaries can be read and studied to understand how the whole revolutionary movement began and how it succeeded. Members from the districts of Kingsland, German Flatts, Palatine, Canajoharie, and Mohawk joined to form the Tryon Co. Cmte of Safety, which took over both civil and military responsibilities for the entire region. Most fiction and non-fiction stories focus on the militias and the battles, the heroes and villains. This will be a look behind the scenes, to the men who were orchestrating the whole thing.