Goshen Cemetery

A post office opened at Goshen in 1871, and by 1885, the Handbook of Texas says, the settlement had 150 people, two churches, a district school, three general stores, four steam gristmills and cotton gins, a hotel and a saloon. Decline began in the early 1890s. The reported population was only twenty-four in 1896, and the post office closed in 1905. By the mid-1930s a church, a school and a few houses remained, and most of the rest left after World War II. Goshen was abandoned by the early 1990s.

What the plaque says

Goshen Cemetery The community of Goshen was established after the Civil War. Named for the Biblical "land of milk and honey," the town of Goshen served the rural farms and communities as a marketing center. It was also a rest stop for trail drivers herding cattle on the Chisholm Trail from East Texas. Goshen existed through the latter part of the 19th century when the railroad was built through this area. Merchants moved their businesses to nearby Eustace, a settlement on the new rail line. Goshen Cemetery remains as the last physical reminder of the once-thriving trading center. According to local legend, the cemetery was founded when a nomadic cowboy became sick and died while working on a nearby ranch. A large grave and stone fence mark the burial place of the cowboy. Although many graves are unmarked, the first documented burial is that of Benjamin G. Hooker in 1869. Among the more than 450 marked graves are burials for several infants and children, pioneer settlers and their descendants, and veterans of America's various wars. The cemetery is managed by the Goshen Cemetery Association and continues to serve the area. (1996)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Purtis Creek State Park — 1.1 mi
  A 1,582-acre park straddling the Henderson and Van Zandt county line, built around a 355-acre lake with no-wake fishing, borrowed tackle, a 4.1-mile hike-and-bike trail and a nature path.
• Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center — 17 mi
  A Texas Parks and Wildlife hatchery and visitor center in Athens where visitors can borrow tackle and fish a stocked pond, watch native species in gallery tanks and ride a tram around the hatchery.
• Petroleum Industry Park — 32 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.

More markers nearby

• Ham (Pauline) — 2.9 mi
• Cockerell Hospital — 3.3 mi
• Site of Centerville — 4.5 mi
• Roddy Lodge No. 734, A.F. & A.M. — 5.3 mi