Goshen, Massachusetts
A Short History of Goshen
A hilltown carved out of Chesterfield in 1781, the place where a clear gemstone was first found and named, and a town that has voted its own budget at open Town Meeting ever since.
Carved Out of Chesterfield
Goshen was first settled in 1761 on the high ground in the eastern foothills of the Berkshires, and for its first twenty years it was part of the neighboring town of Chesterfield. The settlers on these hills eventually decided they wanted a town of their own, and the Commonwealth agreed: an act passed on May 14, 1781 incorporated Goshen as a town in its own right. That is worth sitting with. The town exists because the people who lived here asked for it, in the same form of self-government, open Town Meeting, that still votes your budget today.
The Gem Named for the Town
Goshen has a small and permanent place in the history of gems. Colorless beryl was first identified here in the town’s rocky hills, and the gem trade named that clear variety of the mineral goshenite, after the town where it was found. It is not a household word, but it is a real one: open a mineralogy reference and Goshen’s name is in it, attached to a stone.
Hills, Forest, and Two Lakes
Goshen covers about 17.7 square miles of rolling hills, open fields and dense forest, with two lakes and many ponds. The largest single feature is the 1,800-acre Daughters of the American Revolution State Forest, a Massachusetts state forest inside the town, with campgrounds, a day-use area, and a fire tower that looks out over the hilltowns. Upper Highland Lake lies within it. More than two hundred seasonal homes ring the town’s lakes and ponds, so Goshen’s population swells each summer and settles back each fall, which is part of why a town of about 960 year-round residents thinks carefully about what it builds and how it pays for it.
A Town Meeting Town
For more than two centuries Goshen has governed itself the same way, through one of the oldest forms of self-government in the country. There is no city council and no mayor. The budget, the bylaws, and the town’s biggest decisions are voted at open Town Meeting, where any registered voter can walk in, stand up, speak, and vote. In a town this size the room is small enough that the residents who show up genuinely decide the year, which is exactly what makes one more voter in the hall worth so much.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goshen,_Massachusetts; the Town of Goshen About page (goshen-ma.us/about/); U.S. Census Bureau.