Shiloh
Yorktown, DeWitt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The small farming community of Shiloh began about 1847 with settlement by the McBride, Hamilton, McFarland, Odom, Anderson, and Woods families. In 1851 John Keith Rankin helped organize a Methodist Episcopal Church, whose members erected a building in 1852. Shiloh School, established in 1856, served the community until the early part of the 20th century. The first burial in the Shiloh Cemetery was that of Montraville Woods, son of Texas patriot Zadock Woods, in 1857. Woods Cemetery, as it is now called, is all that remains of the Shiloh community.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The farming community of Shiloh took shape around 1847 as families like the McBrides, Hamiltons, and Woods settled the DeWitt County land. Settlers organized a Methodist Episcopal church by 1851, built a sanctuary in 1852, and established Shiloh School in 1856, which served the area into the early twentieth century. The first burial in its cemetery, in 1857, was Montraville Woods, son of Texas patriot Zadock Woods; the renamed Woods Cemetery is all that survives of the vanished settlement.
Why it matters
Shiloh is a quiet monument to the rural Texas communities that rose around a church and school and then dissolved, leaving only a cemetery to mark their passing.
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Related people
- · John Keith Rankin
- · Zadock Woods
- · Montraville Woods
Themes & tags
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