Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery is in the southeast quarter of Section 36, Township 11 North, Range 13 East, in Butler County, Alabama. It's located on the northeast corner of the intersection of The Ridge Road (County Road 54) and Sherling Lake Road (County Road 44).



This cemetery was the second burial ground for the Primitive Baptists who established a church and cemetery at Poplar Springs in northwest Butler County in 1842. The original church building no longer exists, but the original Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church cemetery -- where many pioneer settlers are buried -- is located a few hundred feet northeast of the newer church and cemetery, on Sherling Lake Road (County Road 44). The older cemetery is listed on Findagrave as the "Old Shiloh Cemetery."



After the original church building burned in the winter of 1885-1886, a new church for the Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church congregation was built a short distance southwest of the original church and cemetery. The church clerk recorded in the minutes for February 6, 1886: "Services in our new church which has just been completed."



Burials in the new cemetery beside the new church at The Ridge Road/Sherling Lake Road location apparently began at that time, although some families continued to use the older cemetery until the mid-twentieth century. The oldest marked graves in the "new" Shiloh cemetery have death dates in the 1890s.



The 1886 building served the Shiloh Primitive Baptist church congregation for nearly three-quarters of a century. It was rebuilt in 1958 and remodeled again several decades later. Church membership was thriving throughout the 19th century, but dwindled in the closing decades of the 20th century. By the end of the 1990s, only one member remained: Mr. Woodrow Odom. In 2006, the church was deeded to the Missionary Baptists, who hold regular services there today (as of 2021).



-- church history by Annie Crenshaw