In the early 1850s, enslaved people in the area used a brush arbor for informal church services held by white minister Jeremiah Seely. The congregation formally organized as Freedmen in 1866, and Boney Moffett was elected first elder. Inspired by the church, Shiloh School began about 1867. The church served as the "Mother Church" of the Zion Rest Primitive Baptist District Association. In 1891, prominent benefactor Minyard Harriss deeded two acres here to the church. The fourth sanctuary was built here in the 1920s. Shiloh School closed in 1949, but the church continues to serve the local community.