GOSHEN  (DARBY CREEK) MONTHLY MEETING
Logan County, Ohio

Goshen Monthly Meeting, Logan Co., Ohio, is located about one mile east of Zanesfield, Ohio. A number of the original members came from Jack Swamp and Rich Square Meetings in North Carolina. From Jack Swamp came members of the Marmon, Reams, Crew, Taylor, Stanton and Patterson families, and from Rich Square came the Outlands, Peeles end Browns. The Parsons, Pickrells, Stanleys, Williams, and Greens came from Mount Pleasant, Virginia. This emigration, which made the early Friends group at Goshen, started in 1806, and other families located the following year.

During the year 1807, the first religious service was held and the first meeting house was built during the latter part of that year. The first name selected was Mad River, but when the monthly meeting was established, the name was changed to Goshen, August 8, 1824.

There was also another meeting notmany miles away, on Darby Creek, called Darby Creek. In 1810 meetings for worship were established by Miami Monthly Meeting. Darby became the first monthly meeting in this section, the first monthly meeting being held December 21, 1811. This meeting was discontinued about 1825. The earlier importance given to Darby Meeting was probably due to the influence of Thomas Antrim, a minister in that community.

A serious division in Goshen Meeting occurred in October 1828 and the Separatists built a little brick meeting house just east of Zanesfield. Among the families who joined the Hicksite branch were Aaron Horton, Zacharias Brown, Jonathan and Nathaniel Thomas, Joseph Curl, Benjamin Taylor, Isaac and Thomas Rea, Joseph Dickinson, Thomas James, Job Antrim, William Knox, Caleb Austin, W. P. Hunt, Elizabeth Grubbs, Hezekiah Starbuck and Edmund Marmon. Among the families who remained with the original group were the Marmons, Reams, Outlands, Paxsons, Peeles, Pickrells, Stantons, Stanleys, Watkins, Elliotts, Stan-fields and Aliens.

After the Separation, both factions held their meetings for a time at Goshen, each claiming the right to the property and blaming the other for the Separation. The question was finally settled by court action  which decided that the property belonged to the original Society.

Under date of January 21, 1830, the Hicksite branch reported “We have purchased the lot and built a house on it which we expect will be inclosed and ready for occupancy shortly". This, no doubt, was the last meeting held at the original Goshen Meeting House by the Hicksite branch. In carrying their meeting to their new home they also carried the name Goshen. The separation was complete by 1830.

William Wade Hinshaw