Goshen, Oregon

In 1853, there was stagecoach stop at what is now Goshen, on the stage line that led from Oregon City to the gold country in Jacksonville.^[4] The Goshen area was settled in the 1870s.^[5] Goshen post office was established in September 1874, with John Handsaker as first postmaster.^[6] In the Bible, Goshen was the pastoral land in lower Egypt occupied by the Israelites before the Exodus.^[6] An author for the Lane County Historian wrote that Goshen was named by John Jacob Hampton,^[7] although Oregon: End of the Trail says that it was named by Elijah Bristow. Bristow saw the area as a "land of promise."^[8] The post office was discontinued in 1957, when it became an Independent Rural Station of Eugene.^[9][10]

In 1884, Goshen was a station on the Oregon and California Railroad (later the Siskiyou Line of the Southern Pacific, and today the Central Oregon and Pacific), and the town had a store, blacksmith shop, and a school.^[11][12]

In 1940 Goshen had a population of 93.^[8]

The Methodist Episcopal Church of Goshen was built in 1910; as of 1990 it was a private residence.^[5][13] It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Andrew J. Keeney House, built circa 1870, is also in the Goshen area.^[14]

Goshen is the site of a Cone Lumber Company sawmill.^[15] At one time the community had a truckstop and a café.^[4] The truckstop and café were torn down in 1999 and replaced with a Pacific Pride commercial filling station.^[16]

Goshen School, which served grades K–8 in the Springfield School District, was closed in June 2011. It now houses the Willamette Leadership Academy, a charter school serving students in grades 6-12.