In the early 1800's, when Illinois was frontier country, the Goshen Road was one of the main arteries of travel. It ran northwest from Shawneetown to Edwardsville for more than 150 miles, linking two of Illinois's leading commercial towns. The road took its name from the Goshen settlement, which lay south and west of Edwardsville, with its center about four miles southwest of here. It had been extended to Edwardsville by 1814 and to Alton by 1839.