The Shiloh Baptist Church demo doesn’t remove its history
This week’s demolition of the Shiloh Baptist Church on Hayes Avenue in Butler has been a long time coming, but that doesn’t make it any easier for those who loved it and those who want to preserve history.
There really weren’t any other realistic options. The dilapidated building would have required a lot of money and a lot of effort to become safe once more.
But it is hard to say goodbye to such an incredible piece of history that ties Butler to the 1865 assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
The 110-year-old Shiloh Baptist was the home church for Lettie Hall once she married pastor David Brown Dade and moved to Butler.
Hall was enslaved by Confederate sympathizer Dr. Samuel Mudd of Charles County, Maryland, who set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth after he fled the Ford’s Theatre after assassinating Lincoln in 1865.
Hall made a meal for Booth as he was hiding from those hunting for the assassin. IT’s hard to imagine what that experience must have been like for her. Mudd was convicted of helping Booth and sentenced to life in prison, until President Andrew Johnson pardoned him four years later.
According to the Dr. Samuel Mudd Society, which operates a museum at his home, Hall was 12 when she was woken up by Mudd to cook breakfast for Booth. The society said this statement is Hall’s memory, “I got up, killed a chicken, and had the finest biscuits I believe I ever baked. I put cream in for shortening, and they were so pretty and nice.”
Hall lived in Butler for 14 years until her death in 1936 in the Island neighborhood of the city. She was buried in Butler’s Rose Hill Cemetery in an unmarked grave until the society erected a stone to mark her grave several years ago.
Because of that, a piece of Hall’s legacy is still preserved for us here.
And, because of Fishbone Ministries, important artifacts were preserved from Shiloh Baptist, the first Black church in the county.
Those artifacts included Bibles and hymnals, church pews, a piano, an organ, church signage, a Communion tray, a baptismal pool, a display case, doors and trim and the cornerstone of the church building.
The church hasn’t had a congregation inside its walls for six years and was condemned five years ago. We all knew the physical structure’s days were numbered. But, luckily, steps were already taken to preserve this important connection to some of this nation’s most turbulent history.
— KL
