Goshen - Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project

Woodridge Lake, Goshen

The town of Goshen, located in Litchfield County, is in the northwestern part of Connecticut and contains a large portion of the Mohawk State Forest. First settled in 1738, the town was incorporated a year later. Primarily a farming community in the 18th century, Goshen also prospered in business. During the American Revolution the town manufactured musket rifles. Other successful ventures included the pineapple cheese factory and the Hervey Brooks pottery shop. A portion of the Appalachian Trail once ran through the town until it was re-routed west of the Housatonic River. Today, Goshen Center and West Goshen are the town’s two principal communities.

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Hervey Brooks’s 19th-Century Pottery Barn

Hervey Brooks was an American potter and farmer who made red earthenware domestic products in Goshen for more than half a century. …[more]

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Places

Goshen Agricultural Society. “Goshen Fair,” 2017. Link.

“Goshen Historical Society,” 2012. Link.

Department of Energy & Environmental Protection. “Mohawk Mountain State Forest/State Park,” 2012. Link.

Documents

Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library. “Broadside, Lewis M. Norton’s Brand of Pineapple Cheese,” 2013.

Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library. “Catalog Record of Myron Norton’s Patent, Improvement in the Mould for Pressing Pine Apple Cheese, October 13, 1830,” 2013.

Connecticut State Library Digital Collections. “Goshen - WPA Architectural Survey,” 2013. Link.

“Goshen Collection.” Connecticut Digital Archive, n.d. Link.

The Litchfield Historical Society. “Hervey Brooks Pottery Collection,” 2016.

Woodford, E. M. “Map of the Town of Goshen, Litchfield County, Connecticut Surveyed and Drawn by E.M. Woodford, C.E., Lith. of Friend & Aub.” Philadelphia, PA: Richard Clark, 1852. Connecticut History Online, Connecticut Historical Society. Link.

Books

Quadrimillennium Editorial Committee. Goshen, Connecticut: A Town Above All Others. West Kennebunk,  ME: Town of Goshen, 1990.

J.W. Lewis & Company. History of Litchfield County, Connecticut, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of the Prominent Men and Pioneers. Philadelphia, PA: J.W. Lewis & Company, 1881. Link.

Hibbard, A. History of the Town of Goshen, Connecticut with Genealogies and Biographies Based Upon the Records of Deacon Lewis Mills Norton. Hartford,  CT: Case,  Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1897.