It has been a long, long time since I wrote about Shiloh. Shiloh is a sad story: a cemetery where the headstones and remains of an extraordinarily important AME church were bulldozed away in Westtown because a former property owner wanted to. But all the souls and remains of the dead are still there. The current property owner is also seemingly uninterested in the history and the languishing dead in now unmarked graves, which is sad.
Today between 11 AM and 1 PM on the steps of the old Chester County Courthouse at 21 West Market Street there is a ceremony to honor the 14 AME soldiers still on site at what use to be Shiloh AME in Westtown. It’s funny, I mentioned to an advocate for this site that this would be the perfect location a few weeks ago to get attention to the history languishing.
You are invited! Please Share.The Forgotten USCTs of Shiloh AME Church & Cemetery: A Day of Honor and Memory
Saturday, May 25, 2024, 11AM – 1 PM
In front of the Historic Chester County Courthouse
21 West Market Street
West Chester, PA 19380
FREE – Open to the Public!
Presented by the Friends of Shiloh AME Church and Cemetery
Featuring:
o Rev. Dr. Richelle Forman Gunter, Associate Minister
St. Paul’s Baptist Church, West Chester
o Speaker – Dr. Cheryl Renée Gooch, author of
Hinsonville’s Heroes: Black Civil War Soldiers of Chester County, Pennsylvania
o Robert Ford USCT 54th Massachusetts Co. B, Reenactor
o Speaker – Dr. Tonya Thames Taylor, Professor of History West Chester University
o Representative Headstones of 14 United States Colored Troops (USCTs)
Buried at Shiloh
o Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
More Information Attached:
– Shiloh AME brochure
– Inquirer Op-Ed, Friday, May 17, 2024,
“Black Civil War veterans in an abandoned Chester County cemetery deserve a memorial”
JOIN US!
shilohAMEfriends@gmail.com
It’s hallowed ground treated in the most unhallowed way. This happens far too often. Could this space be saved and properly remembered? Yes, but the current property owner doesn’t want people on his property. It’s sad but that is his choice.
It just gives you pause. There are 140 graves that never moved when the church closed in the 1920s and a subsequent but not current owner bulldozed the crumbling remains of the church built in 1817 was bulldozed in the 1960s. Think about it, the AME Church was only about 23 years old when this was built and slavery was not yet abolished. This is truly one of the earliest AME sites in the same state where the AME church was founded by Richard Allen in Philadelphia. This site pre-dates Ebenezer in Frazer on Bacton Hill Rd.
I tried to write about Shiloh in 2016 when I was told that there was going to be a cleanup of the site. I was invited to it. Yet when I wrote a post people freaked out. So I killed the post and haven’t said boo since.
Only ONE grave survived thanks to a neighbor.
These hallowed grounds matter. People’s ancestors are buried there. Here’s hoping Westtown can get the property owner to come around.
My photo from a Westtown Day either 2016 or 2017 at Oakbourne.
Seems horrible that any cemetery but especially one of this significant history wasn’t mandated to be preserved. I never even knew this one existed and grew up nearby. So glad you shared this!
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Oh really? Because it’s locals that taught me about Shiloh when I first moved out here. And then I went to an Oakbourne day and there was this whole display about the Civil War soldiers. And this happens with lots of the AME cemeteries. Some of it has to do with the way the church is structured, and I think they literally lose sight of their former churches, and the other thing is lots of people just don’t care. And then you have the current situation where a prior owner bulldozed everything and flash forward how many decades and the current owner I don’t think I knew the stuff was there, but then doesn’t want people on their property which is their right. But then you have the conundrum of this is literally history and peoples relatives are buried there. Of course this isn’t. The only time that this has happened in Southeastern PA decades ago when neighborhood was being developed in Strafford around Mancil Road in Tredyffrin there was rumored to be an Indian burial ground that they just Bulldozed under. And underneath an office complex of small buildings at Swedesford, and Bacton Hill it is rumored that revolutionary war soldiers were just bulldozed under there. I’m not saying it’s right because it really isn’t but it’s like this is a practice and we should stop it
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Seems horrible that any cemetery but especially one of this significant history wasn’t mandated to be preserved. I never even knew this one existed and grew up nearby. So glad you shared this!
Oh really? Because it’s locals that taught me about Shiloh when I first moved out here. And then I went to an Oakbourne day and there was this whole display about the Civil War soldiers. And this happens with lots of the AME cemeteries. Some of it has to do with the way the church is structured, and I think they literally lose sight of their former churches, and the other thing is lots of people just don’t care. And then you have the current situation where a prior owner bulldozed everything and flash forward how many decades and the current owner I don’t think I knew the stuff was there, but then doesn’t want people on their property which is their right. But then you have the conundrum of this is literally history and peoples relatives are buried there. Of course this isn’t. The only time that this has happened in Southeastern PA decades ago when neighborhood was being developed in Strafford around Mancil Road in Tredyffrin there was rumored to be an Indian burial ground that they just Bulldozed under. And underneath an office complex of small buildings at Swedesford, and Bacton Hill it is rumored that revolutionary war soldiers were just bulldozed under there. I’m not saying it’s right because it really isn’t but it’s like this is a practice and we should stop it