I used to write about this cemetery from time to time. Mostly blips on the blog’s Facebook page. I wrote about Shiloh on this website in May of 2024:
Shiloh is a church that no longer exists….but there are still black civil war soldiers and others buried on what is now private property. I just do not understand why the property owner wouldn’t allow for the dead to rest properly. It was one of those places where I was told headstones disappeared over time. The church itself closed in the 1920s and then around 1960 the land was first (?) sold and the church razed and graves too. I remember when I first found out about it. I have always wondered if any headstones are under the earth over there? But again it is PRIVATE property so you can’t go wander.
Anyway there is a group – Friends of Shiloh AME and they need the help of the public to find descendants of the old souls buried there.
Can you help?
Shiloh predates Ebenezer – it’s so historically important.
Here is the find a grave link:
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2390668/shiloh-african-methodist-episcopal-cemetery
If one of your people over time was laid to rest here kindly email Shilohamefriends@gmail.com
What is really truly sad? There are lots of babies and little buried here. Not just adults. Not just at least 12 black civil war soldiers.
Here’s the property ownership. It says the owners live up in the York area? So who lives there? It’s two separate parcels, same owner. Guy with same name in Shrewsberry Township in York County PA is on the Agricultural Review Committee and someone with the same name own an unassuming cute little house in Cape May NJ too?
The property sits on some historic list for Westtown.
West Goshen is across the road from part of this property and on the West Goshen website I found this written by Stephen Lyons:
[ARCHIVED] Shiloh and the Beloved Community
A Little Black Church, Bayard Rustin and the Bird in Hand.
(Part I in a series of stories highlighting Black History in our Community)
-Written by Stephen Lyons West Goshen Historic CommissionWhen you stand at the intersection of an old stone wall built by Scots-Irish and a road called “Daisy Lane” in the place known as “Falcon Crest” you can almost hear a whisper among the pin oak through the valley…‘Shiloh’. It is Biblical word which almost sounds like a prayer. I remember as a young boy about 5 or 6 climbing that stone wall and a breathtaking vista of a golden meadow on what was Forsythe land in the 19th Century. Just over the hill in Westtown Township at the intersection of Shiloh and Little Shiloh Rd. a historic black community once thrived for 100 years and a little black church known as Shiloh African Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery. While this Historic Church and Cemetery lies within Westtown Township members of this Black Community lived and worked in West Goshen. Shiloh Church was built of simple Brown Fieldstone in 1807, for the White Methodist church and deeded to the AME Church in 1817. It is believed to be one of the first, possibly the first ‘connection’ Churches established after the famous Mother Bethel in Philadelphia was officially organized in 1816 by Rev Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. Famous Preachers such as Rev Jarena Lee and Rev Henry McNeil Turner preached here. There were Grand ‘Meetings in the Woods’ held within West Goshen, oftentimes including both Blacks and Whites. There are 140 Graves within this ½ acre parcel of Earth including 15 United States Colored Troops. The sad reality is this hallowed Ground has been desecrated for generations by neglectful property owners who attempted to erase this Hallowed Ground by demolishing the remains of the Church and removing the headstones left to disappear within the weeds of time hoping that Townships and communities would forget.
A Group of concerned citizens have not forgotten and will not forget…
On May 25, 2024 in front of the old Courthouse in West Chester, the Friends of Shiloh AME Church and Cemetery sought to honor and bring recognition to the 15 USCT Veterans buried at Shiloh. On that extraordinary day commemorating Decoration Day the precursor to Memorial Day highlighted the Veterans buried there and to draw attention to the enormous Historical importance of this forgotten space. It was likely the first time in 100 years that any kind of formal recognition had taken place for these Veterans. Isaac J. Winters was one of the 15 United States Colored Troops buried at Shiloh. He was the Church Sexton for some 60 years. He lived across the Street in West Goshen Township and operated a Station on the Underground Railroad out of the Church basement and in his home. Many of the families of Shiloh also worked at the Westtown School for generations. There are multiple threads to this History.
I don’t understand why the property owner won’t allow the graveyard to be cleaned up. According to Find A Grave there are 156 records. So that is at least 156 people. It just seems eternally cruel somehow. Maybe the property owner will change his mind. I sure hope so. It’s not his fault the land was cleared, etc as that was prior to the current ownership. But a great legacy for this small bit of land would be to restore it sort of. You will never get all the headstones back, but maybe some sort of memorial might rise in the future? Well we can all dream of that, right?
Here is the list of the inhabitants of what was once a cemetery:
I have no idea who will read this or who will care. But people should. And I wish the property owner would. Anyway, there is nothing to be done with that for now, so if you have an ancestor on the graves list, let Friends of Shiloh know please.
