Shiloh Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out along the Lodi-Sutherland Springs Road in Wilson County, a community took root and called itself Shiloh. And like most communities that mean to last, one of the first things they attended to was a place to lay their people down.

The land was already being used as a burial ground when, in 1886, J. H. James and others made it official, selling that ground to a man named John P.

Pritchett for a proper cemetery. Pritchett didn't stop there. He later conveyed adjoining land to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and to Wilson County itself, so that a school could be established.

Shiloh School. The church, the school, the cemetery. The three things a community plants when it intends to grow.

Now, the earliest known burial in that ground is Florence Price, who passed in 1884, two years before the land was even formally sold for the purpose. She was already there, waiting on the paperwork, you might say. Among those who followed her was James Madison Smith, gone in 1905, a man who had ridden with the 2nd Florida Cavalry, C.S.A., during the Civil War.

The last known burial the marker can name is Thomas McDonald, laid to rest in 1939. Walk through Shiloh Cemetery today and you'll find concrete, granite, and marble headstones standing alongside unmarked graves, and interior fencing holding the whole quiet place together. The marker calls it a historic vestige of a rural Wilson County settlement.

I'd call it something a little more than that. It's the part of Shiloh that's still here.

What the marker says

The Shiloh community developed along Lodi-Sutherland Springs Road. In 1886, J. H. James and others sold land to John P. Pritchett for a cemetery, although the land was already being used as a burial ground. Pritchett also later conveyed adjoining land to the Methodist Episcopal Church South and to Wilson County to establish Shiloh School. The earliest known burial here was Florence Price (d. 1884). James Madison Smith (d. 1905) served in the 2nd Florida Cavalry C.S.A. during the Civil War. The last known burial was Thomas McDonald in 1939. Today, Shiloh Cemetery features concrete, granite and marble headstones, unmarked graves, and interior fencing. It is a historic vestige of a rural Wilson County settlement.