Tag Archives: Goshen

Hidden Nearby: North Goshen Methodist Episcopal Church Marker

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The Methodist Episcopal Church was an outgrowth of the Great Awakening, a colonial American religious movement within the Church of England that emphasized being born again and attaining Christian perfection. Additionally, the Methodist Episcopal ministers and congregants tended to be both anti-elitist and anti-slavery.

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John Wesley

John Wesley, who along with George Whitefield founded Methodism, ordained the first American Methodist Episcopal ministers in 1784. Methodists in most Litchfield County towns continued to attend Congregational services until they could build a church of their own. This was the case in the community of North Goshen; however, when – in 1840 –  the Methodists in that area expressed a desire to build their own church, the Congregationalists contributed to their cause.

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That church stood at what is now the intersection of East Street North and North Goshen Road. As towns were often created when a significant number of people no longer wanted to travel far for religious services (Morris was carved out of Litchfield and Washington out of New Milford, Litchfield and Woodbury for this reason), the presence of this church suggests that while this area is now quite remote, it was once a vibrant community. In fact, the “History of the Town of Goshen” states that the church “flourished and at the congregation at times filled the church to overflowing.”

That 1897 history, however, also states that in later years the church’s numbers and finances were “greatly reduced,” leading the congregation to accept attendees from other churches and to be “very liberal to all sects, and Adventists, Unitarians, Baptists, and Congregationalists have preached to us but we like the ‘good Old Methodists’ the best.” The North Goshen Church closed 1920, less than two decades before the 1939 merger between the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Protestant Church, which formed the United Methodist Church.

 

 

 

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Hidden Nearby: Goshen’s Animal Pound

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The History of Litchfield County, published in 1881 by the J.W. Lewis Company in Philadelphia, suggests that North Goshen was once a thriving community.  The book offers a house-by-house guide of the area, describing the residents and their commercial and religious activities.

Pound sign

Today, nearly all vestiges of the community are gone, the land owned by the Torrington Water Company.  There are a few hints remaining, however, to the history of this area.  Along East Street North stands an animal pound, a sign suggesting that it was built “circa 1800.”

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Animal pounds were a common sight in early America, as livestock often roamed free.  In fact, at the meetings that established the town of Goshen in 1739, the residents appointed three horse branders whose task was to apply a distinctive mark to each resident’s animals.  That year, 66 distinct marks were recorded in Goshen.

At that same meeting, two men were given permission to build town pounds.  Livestock, by town ordinance, could roam free from March to November.  However, those not in their owner’s barns by November would be impounded and cared for by the town’s pound keeper.  When the owner arrived at the pound to claim his animal, he would pay a fee to the keeper.  Town records in Goshen also indicate that those delinquent in paying their taxes could work off their debt by supervising the town pounds.

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The walls of the pound had to be wide enough so that an animal couldn’t step over them.

As part of Goshen’s 250th anniversary in 1989, the Torrington Water Company restored this pound.  Its walls are 35 feet long and 25 feet wide, and stand 4 feet high.

Structures like the Goshen animal pound offer the 21st century explorer a glimpse of life nearly three centuries ago, and remind us of the centrality of livestock to the daily existence of those who inhabited Litchfield County.

Hidden Nearby: Goshen’s Liberty Pole

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Note: Occasionally Hidden in Plain Sight will leave the environs of Litchfield in search of the historical landscape of the area.

On this Fourth of July, a marker on East Street North in nearby Goshen, Connecticut, allows us a window on to past celebrations of American freedoms and liberties.

John Adams famously believed that the signing of the Declaration of Independence “ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” He was not far from the mark; he erred only in believing that the celebrations would be held on July 2nd, the day the Continental Congress approved the document.

Raising a Liberty Pole in New York City, 1765

In Adams’ time, American patriots expressed their desire for freedom with liberty poles. Liberty poles were a common sight in the years before and during the American Revolution. These were tall, wooden poles, planted in the ground; they were different from regular flag poles in that they were usually topped by either a banner emblazoned with patriotic phrases or a liberty cap. (Liberty caps were conical-shaped hats, often made out of felt or other soft material; they were associated with the quest of Roman slaves for freedom.)

Liberty poles were often seen flying a red ensign; this was a signal for patriots to assemble to discuss the latest acts of British oppression. Naturally, British authorities objected to this means of communication between rebels, and the poles were destroyed. Just as quickly, however, they were rebuilt by Americans – especially the Sons of Liberty.

A French liberty pole

Liberty poles became symbolic of liberty, freedom and independence, and their use caught on in France during the French Revolution. They were also used as symbols of protest by farmers in western Pennsylvania during the period of the Whiskey Rebellion, from 1791 to 1794. As a symbol of liberty and freedom, the liberty pole was a popular image on 19th century American coins. In this 1857 “half dime,” the seated figure of Liberty holds a liberty pole topped with a liberty (or Phyrgian cap) in her left hand:

One wonders about Goshen’s liberty pole; it seems unlikely that there were many people in the area to gather around it in 1776. Why was it erected at this site, and not in the center of town? Was it, perhaps, simply a patriotic statement by an individual? Has there been a dramatic shift in the population center of Goshen? (There are other remnants of colonial Goshen further north on East Street.) Still, the town was proud of its patriotic activity in the Revolutionary Era and chose to commemorate it for the nation’s bicentennial. The town’s history records the events of July 4, 1876:

“In the early morning a company had assembled at the spot where a liberty pole had stood during the Revolution, and with appropriate ceremonies the stars and stripes were raised and flung to the breeze.”

One hundred years later, Goshen’s liberty pole was rededicated, as part of the official celebration of the nation’s bicentennial. A stone marker was dedicated, bearing the official seal of the Bicentennial, a flag pole erected behind it, and a time capsule buried.

We will celebrate the 236th anniversary of the nation’s independence in the style predicted by Adams – with pomp, parades, sports, and illuminations. Still, it is worth a trip to Goshen to be reminded of how freedom and liberty were celebrated in a simpler time.