Shiloh Methodist Church and Cemetery

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Shiloh Methodist Church and Cemetery in Cherokee County. It starts, as so many Texas stories do, with the land and the people willing to share it. Back in 1850, a child named James W.

Rozelle was laid to rest on a wooded rise, allowed there by the land's owners, Edwin and Martha Harry. A small grave on a quiet hill. That was the beginning.

Four years later, in 1854, the Harrys made another generous decision. They allotted one acre at that very site for a Methodist church. They called it Shiloh, after the popular biblical place name, and the congregation got to work.

The original trustees were five men: David Byrd, Edwin Harry, Daniel Henderson, Jesse Hill, and Thomas Singletary. All five of them are buried there. Think about that for a moment.

The men who founded the place, who signed their names to it, who gave it shape and purpose, never left. The congregation first gathered in a log building, modest and sturdy the way things had to be. Then in 1870 a frame structure went up, something a little more permanent, a little more settled.

And Shiloh kept on. In 1912 the church members built the present sanctuary, right there on that same first site where a child had been buried in 1850. Same ground.

New walls. The church remained active until 1954. More than a hundred years of a community gathering on that wooded rise in Cherokee County, all of it rooted in two decisions Edwin and Martha Harry made, to let a child rest there, and to give an acre to something larger than themselves.

What the marker says

The burial of a child, James W. Rozelle, was allowed on this wooded rise in 1850 by land owners Edwin and Martha Harry. In 1854 the Harrys allotted one acre at this site for a Methodist church, called Shiloh after the popular biblical place name. The original trustees were David Byrd, Edwin Harry, Daniel Henderson, Jesse Hill, and Thomas Singletary, all buried here. The congregation first met in a log building until a frame structure was erected in 1870. In 1912 church members built the present sanctuary on the first site. The church was active until 1954.