Shiloh, Gregg County, Texas


Shiloh is a small unincorporated farming community on Shiloh Road near White Oak in north central Gregg County, Texas, United States. Located just south of the Upshur County line, Shiloh was established by former slaves of Gideon Christian just after the end of the Civil War.

History

According to local tradition, former slave Butcher Christian, his former master, Gideon Christian, and noted post-Civil War church organizer, the Rev. John Baptist, established the Shiloh Baptist Church in 1871. Services began in a log sanctuary located on donated by Butcher Christian. A school for African Americans operated there until the 1890s. An adjacent cemetery with marked graves dating to 1882 is still active. Revenue from oil discovered on church land was used to build a new sanctuary on this site in 1936. Shiloh Baptist Church still serves the community with a variety of programs.
The First Presbyterian Church was organized in Shiloh, Gregg County, Texas in 1838, but relocated to Clarksville in 1844.
The newly freed African Americans of the Shiloh Community established a school for their children shortly after the Civil War. The one-room building was demolished in the late 19th century and classes were held at the Shiloh Baptist Church. With financial assistance from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, a new two-room school was erected in 1920. It was replaced by a large brick building in the 1930s. The High School was closed in 1949; the end of segregation closed the rest of the Shiloh School in 1966. Shiloh graduates became contributing citizens in Texas and the nation. Long vacant, the school building was later used to store chemicals for a plastics company, and burned in 1993. The remains of the school are still standing, and there is a historical marker in front of it.