Westtown Township is among the growing number of places across the nation where amateur historians and others are working on preserving abandoned and neglected Black cemeteries, write Gail Guterl and Stephen Lyons for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The township has a half-acre cemetery on a suburban road that is currently unrecognizable as a burial ground. But that cemetery was once part of a thriving African Methodist Episcopal congregation founded in 1817, the Shiloh AME Church.
Over time, as congregants died or moved away, the parish closed its doors. The church was razed in the 1960s.
The cemetery had about 140 graves, with 14 verified burials of the United States Colored Troops Civil War veterans. However, all of their headstones are gone except for one that was rescued by a neighbor.
Additionally, the current owner is strictly prohibiting entry to the Shiloh AME Church cemetery, making it impossible to lay flowers or place a flag on the graves this Memorial Day.
As the cemetery represents a profound history not just for the township but the entire country, amateur historians hope to get elected officials to provide access to and maintain the cemetery.
Read more about the preservation efforts at the Shiloh AME Church in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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