Shiloh Cemetery

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of Shiloh Cemetery in Waller County. Back in 1881, a man named Thomas Armer deeded land in the Shiloh Community for a Baptist church. That's how it started, quiet and deliberate, one deed, one community, one purpose.

Then two years later, in 1883, Armer sold an adjacent acre to the church, and that acre became this cemetery. He wasn't done, either. In later years Armer sold more land, to the church and to Pond Creek School, piece by piece, the community taking shape around those early transactions.

And the community kept growing. By 1908, a larger sanctuary had been erected, and the cemetery was enlarged to take in the Armer family burial ground itself. The earliest marked grave in that family plot belongs to Daniel Armer, who died in 1882, just one year after Thomas first put pen to paper on that original deed.

Now, a place that's been built up slowly, deliberately, over decades, you might think it could stand against just about anything. Then came 1957. A tornado damaged the cemetery and destroyed the sanctuary outright.

But here's the thing about a community that's been tending the same ground since 1881. They rebuilt. The structure went back up.

And Shiloh Cemetery is still here to tell the tale.

What the marker says

In 1881 Thomas Armer deeded land in the Shiloh Community for a Baptist church. He sold an adjacent acre to the church for this cemetery in 1883, and in later years Armer sold more land to the church and to Pond Creek School. The community continued to grow, and by 1908 a larger sanctuary was erected and the cemetery was enlarged to include the Armer family burial ground. The earliest marked grave in the family plot is that of Daniel Armer (d. 1882). A tornado damaged the cemetery and destroyed the sanctuary in 1957, but the structure was rebuilt.