Goshen’s early settlers made sure that reading, writing and arithmetic were part of their children’s lives. John Towne, a teacher at the Four Corners School wrote in 1888:
“To Goshen Corners I did go,
Where the wind was fresh and cooling,
And the good people there I found
Believed in thorough schooling.”
The first school in Goshen was held in the barn of Daniel Sherburne. Four years after the Incorporation of Goshen, at the 1796 March Town Meeting, it was voted to create School Districts and provide $50.00 (~$1,111.00 today) to build schoolhouses by that October. The first schoolhouse built in Goshen was at Four Corners, a log building built in 1796.
At the April 29, 1801, Goshen Town Meeting the first school Districts were established. They were the:
– South District at Goshen Four Corners
– North East District along the Province Road
– Center (or Middle) District on Center Road
In 1802 a committee was chosen to build the schools, and by November of 1802 George Ayers was chosen to build the North East School and Nathaniel Sherburne chosen to build the Center school. The Town voted to keep the current schoolhouse at Goshen Corners. The additional schools built in Goshen were the Line Schoolhouse in 1811, Mill Village in 1831, and District 5 in 1841. Many thanks to Reggie Shepard for much of this information about Goshen schools.
A map of the physical location of each of the Goshen Schools. Locations are not to scale.
Goshen Four Corners School
1796-1957
The first School District formed was at Goshen Four Corners, serving South Goshen. The first schoolhouse, built in 1796, stood on the Lempster Coach Road. In 1825 the original school was replaced with a brick building, which stood for 32 years, until 1857, when it was dismantled and replaced with a wooden structure because fewer students were in attendance. A renovation by volunteers in 1947 added a kitchen and cafeteria. This school was in use until 1957 when the Goshen Lempster Cooperative School opened.
