The History of Shiloh Baptist Church, Longview Texas Part I

Shiloh Baptist Church Today

 

Rev. John Baptist, according to the United States 1870 census, was an African American who lived in Liberty County, Texas. He had a wife, Peggy, and no children. According to the heirs of the charter members of Shiloh Baptist Church, Rev. Baptist was a traveling minister who went from place to place and organized churches for recently freed slaves. The slave-master, Mr. Gedeon Christian secured the services of Rev. Baptist to aid blacks of the Shiloh Community in organizing Shiloh Baptist Church. Three years later (1874), he organized the neighboring Center Baptist Church in the Camp Switch.

Shiloh was a small rural community comprising of only a portion of Gregg County’s 284 square miles in 1882. While farming was the chief industry, domestic workers, logging, and saw-milling were minor industries that provided employment for black residents in rural communities. There were no known businesses or public institutions in the Shiloh Community during this era. Shiloh Baptist Church was the only black church in the community. Later in 1885, a 20 X 30 ft. one room frame school building was used for church services by whites in the neighboring White Oak community.

After the Civil War and after the slaves learned that they were fee (June 19, 1865), there were many problems and hardships. Most slaves had not learned to read or write. Texas declared that black education would have to be funded by black tax payers. However, there were few black property owners and jobs to fund their own schools. As a result, black children were denied an education. It was during this time, the 1870s and up to the 1890s that school was held in Shiloh Baptist Church.  It is not known how many students attended the Shiloh Church School, but it was open to all children of the community regardless to religious beliefs.

The Shiloh Baptist Church Cemetary is active and adjacent to the church property. The cemetery was established in 1892. It is not known who the first person was that was buried there. The Shiloh Historical Research Committee surveyed the Shiloh Cemetary and discovered that there were unmarked graves or marked only with a rock as a headstone with no indication of who was buried there.

Notes taken from the following sources: