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 al…
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.
Black Civil War veterans in an abandoned Chester County cemetery deserve a memorial
Gail Guterl and Stephen Lyons, For The Inquirer
In Westtown Township and across the nation, amateur historians and others are working to preserve abandoned and neglected Black cemeteries.
Soon, in preparation for Memorial Day, hundreds of soldiers will fan out at Arlington National Cemetery with backpacks full of American flags, placing them on every grave.
In communities around the country, many civilians will be doing the same, placing an American flag at the grave of their loved one who served in the military in defense of our great nation. But not all of our nation's fallen soldiers are able to be honored in this way.
For example, in Westtown Township, near West Chester, there is a half-acre cemetery on a suburban road that no one would mistake for a burial ground. There are no tombstones visible on the overgrown property where groundhogs and rabbits have dug their homes — at times unearthing the bones of those buried there.
The cemetery was once part of a thriving African Methodist Episcopal congregation, Shiloh AME Church, founded in 1817 and thought to be one of the first AME churches outside of Philadelphia. Over time, with the death of congregants and people moving away, the parish closed its doors in the 1920s; the deteriorating church was razed in the 1960s.
The cemetery, with about 140 graves, did not move with the congregation. And in that cemetery are the verified burials of 14 United States Colored Troops Civil War veterans. We know a little about some of these veterans: Isaac Winters, a soldier in the 43rd U.S. Colored Infantry F Company, did his training at Camp William Penn and was sexton at Shiloh AME Church for more than 60 years. Thomas Henry was a private in Company B of the 3rd United States Colored Troops.
Shiloh AME cemetery represents a profound history for both the community and the country.
We don't know where the veterans of Shiloh AME Church areburied because a previous owner had the remains of the church bulldozed and the tombstones removed. All the headstones are gone except for the headstone of Alfred Bye, Company A, 32nd U.S. Colored Regiment, which was rescued and preserved by a neighbor. We have no idea of the location of the headstone for his brother, Richard, who served in the same regiment and is also buried at Shiloh.
Right now, entry to the Shiloh AME Church cemetery is strictly prohibited by the owner. No one will be allowed to lay flowers or place a flag on the graves this Memorial Day.
This situation, with individual variations, is playing out across Chester County and the country. More and more abandoned or neglected Black cemeteries are being discovered (many with U.S. Colored Troopsburials), and efforts are being made to preserve and restore them.
In Chester County alone, at least eight unkempt graveyards with U.S. Colored Troops burials have been identified. In 2022, Congress passed the African American Burial Grounds Preservation Program, authorizing the National Park Service to establish a $3 million grant program to aid preservation efforts of historic African American burial grounds.
Yet, this amount is woefully insufficient.According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a grant competition last year drew proposals from 5,400 Black cemeteries seeking a total of some $650 million — more than six times the amount available.
Shiloh AME cemetery represents a profound history for both the community and the country. There is evidence this Black congregation aided fleeing enslaved people in their race to freedom, and the church sits only a few miles from several historic Quaker establishments along the Underground Railroad.
The least we can do is encourage our elected officials to provide access to and maintain the cemetery. We must create a memorial in Westtown Township to honor the U.S. Colored Troops dead.
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