Deck Builder in Goshen, NY

European settlement began around 1714, although plans for this were made beginning about 1654. The town was established in 1788, after the American Revolutionary War and New York becoming a state. As population increased in the area, in 1830, part of Goshen was divided off to form the new Town of Hamptonburgh. In 1845, another part was used to form the Town of Chester.

When the French and Indian War began in 1756, the men of Goshen took up arms. The old Journal of the Assembly relates the services of Captain George DeKay as an express between Goshen and Minisink. It mentions as his guards Peter Carter, David Benjamin, Philip Reid, and Francis Armstrong. It tells also that Colonel Vincent Mathews was paid two pounds to furnish guides to regulars posted at Goshen from October 1757, to February 1758. Colonels Clinton and DeKay fortified block houses for the settlers’ defense. Samuel Gale was paid 56 pounds to furnish provisions to troops on the frontiers near Goshen. Colonel Benj. Tusten, Captain Daniel Case, and Captain J. Bull were reimbursed for their expenses in building block houses Nos. 1 and 2 on the western frontier in January 1757.

In 1763, Lieutenant Governor Cadwallader Golden appealed to the General Assembly for troops to relieve the militia on the borders of Orange and Ulster counties, an area infiltrated by the enemy. At this time the Town of Goshen extended from the Hudson River to the New Jersey border. In 1764 a bill was passed dividing the precinct of Goshen into two precincts, to be called Goshen and Cornwall. After this division, Cornwall embraced the present towns of Cornwall, Monroe and Blooming Grove, while Goshen included the present town of Warwick.