Neighbor News
Historic Chester County Black Cemetery to Get Marker
14 US Colored Troops from the Civil War will get recognition with historic marker
For Immediate Release
Date: March 6, 2025
Contact: Gail Guterl friendsofshilohame@gmail.com or Gailguterl@verizon.net
Find out what's happening in West Chesterfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Historic Chester County Black Cemetery to Get Marker
Founded in 1817, the Shiloh African Methodist Episcopal church in Westtown, PA served as a center for the local Black community. But by the 1960s, the decaying building was demolished. The adjacent cemetery had the grave markers stolen (only one monument survives) and is now overgrown. Among the many buried here are 14 Black Civil War veterans.
Find out what's happening in West Chesterfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Monday, March 3, the Westtown Township Board of Supervisors (BoS) voted to allow this historic half-acre of ground to receive long-deserved recognition. The supervisors approved a January request from the independent group, the Friends of Shiloh AME Church and Cemetery (FoS), for a historic marker to be placed on Little Shiloh Road, adjacent to the church property.
The marker will be Westtown’s first African American historic marker in its 330-year history and will detail the historic importance of the church and cemetery. The marker will be paid for from donations raised by FoS with funds managed by the Brandywine Valley Civil War Round Table, a nonprofit organization.
In his January presentation to the BoS, Stephen Lyons, chair of FoS, pointed out the Shiloh AME community had been active for more than 100 years. Fourteen United States Colored Troops are known to buried at the cemetery as well as an estimated 140 or more church congregants. Today only a single gravestone remains, and the privately owned cemetery is not accessible to the descendants of those interred there.
The efforts to create this marker involved community support from private citizens, descendants of those buried at Shiloh, and groups such as Pennsylvania Hallowed Grounds, Westtown Monthly Meeting, and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
The FoS will be soliciting donations soon to pay the estimated cost of $4,000 for the cast aluminum sign and will alert the community how they may contribute.
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