by Cornelia Nay

The first Methodist Church in the Goshen area was the Crossroads Meeting House, built 1823 at the corner of Hwy 42 and N. Buckeye Lane. This church burned about 1860, and for a time its members met at Antioch Church located on the Hermitage Farm. In 1870 Shiloh Methodist Church was built at the corner of Shiloh Lane and Hwy 42. This frame structure was replaced in 1948 with a stone sanctuary building (classrooms, fellowship hall, and kitchen). In 1888 former slaves who attended the Crossroads Meeting House built Little Vine African Methodist Episcopal Church. It still stands at the original site located on Highway 42, approximately a quarter mile west of Buckeye Lane.

The first Shiloh parsonage was built in 1870 on a lot near the Skylight Grocery Store at Hwy 42 and Axton Lane. This parsonage burned in 1915. In August 1935, Robert Shrader, who owned a farm next to Shiloh Church, deeded a tract of land to the church for a parsonage. Reverend E. C. Johnson, members of the church, and local citizens worked together to build the new parsonage. Some of the families who helped with construction were: Bottorff, Clausen, Adams, Leet, Carter, Ross, Pinnell, Shrader, Reibel, Becker, Hampton, Fellows, Nay, Waters, and Hood. Local farmers donated most of the construction materials. One large poplar tree provided much of the lumber used by the workers. Joe and Ernest Nay cut the poplar tree and hauled the logs by horse drawn wagon for some distance. It was then loaded onto a truck for transport to a sawmill located in the Highway 1694 area. The truck, owned by John Leet, was one of the first large trucks in the area. Church members also purchased used lumber to finish framing and for the siding.

The construction of the parsonage basement provided an extra challenge. The digging took days, even with the help of a device called a slip scraper. A slip scraper looked something like a huge metal scoop with a sharp flat end. On either side of the sharp flat end two iron rods were attached. These rods were attached to a crosspiece that was hooked up to two horses. The first worker held the horses until the scraper was in place. At the opposite end of the scraper were two handles, which allowed the second worker to guide the scraper. Once the scraper cut into the ground to a certain depth, the first worker signaled the horses to pull the scraper. As the dirt was lifted out of the ground it was dumped nearby. Some of this dirt was later used to fill in around the basement.site on Highway 1694 owned by the Hermitage Farm. After the hole was dug, workers mixed concrete for the basement floor and walls. The sand and gravel used for the concrete came from the Kerlin farm, located by the Ohio River near Rose Island Road and Highway 1793. This second Shiloh parsonage was completed in 1936. After construction of a new parsonage in 2001 at Barbizon Place, the 1936 parsonage was moved to a site on Hwy 1694 owned by Hermitage Farm.