Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

278 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
ings on Monday mornings; and here, on July 4, 1775, assembled the Provincial
Congress which formally severed the tie of allegiance between the colony and the
Crown. In the spring of 1899 the Colonial Dames placed a tablet of bronze upon
the building which occupies the site of Tondee's Tavern. The inscription thereon
reads:
"Stood, on this site, in colonial times, Tondee's Tavern, where
gathered the ' Sons of Liberty.' Krected by the Georgia Society of
the Colonial Dames of America,"
Peter Tondee, the owner of this famous hostelry, was a patriot of the most loyal
pattern. According to tradition, he held the post of doorkeeper at the gatherings
of the "Sons of Liberty," and, though his establishment was open to the public,
on ordinary occasions, no one could enter the long room, when the patriots were to
meet there, without first pronouncing the shibboleth of freedom. In front of the
tavern, on June 5, 1775, was erected the famous liberty pole, which became the
rallying center of the town; and from the porch Archibald Bulloch, then president
of the Council of Safety, read the declaration of independence to the assembled
populace, after which thirteen guns were fired from the old battery on Bay Street.
Though little is known of the man who owned the tavern, beyond the fact that he
was one of the patriotic band, his name is imperishably written among the immortals
and his memory will be fragrant in Georgia to the latest generation.—Ibid. Vol. I.