Provincial designation protects Shiloh church
Shiloh Baptist Church is hallowed ground for Crystal Mayes.
When she visits the site of the church and cemetery near Maidstone, she feels a need to be quiet.
Her great-grandmother, Mattie Mayes, who became a midwife in the Maidstone area, was one of the original Shiloh People who moved to Saskatchewan in 1910.
The families built a church of hand-cut poplar logs from the North Saskatchewan River’s banks and, around it, a community.
The church and its adjoining cemetery were named a Provincial Heritage Property on Thursday.
Mayes reflects on the strength it would have taken the families seeking freedom to travel more than 1,600 kilometres to an area 30 kilometres northwest of Maidstone. Their only promise was free land, Mayes said, and they didn’t know what the climate or land would be like, but they were leaving the Jim Crow South behind.
They created the first and only black farming community in the province and laid the foundation of the social centre of their new community, which was complete in 1912.
Outside Shiloh Baptist Church is a cemetery with at least 37 graves of the original settlers and their descendants. Once marked by stones, they are now marked by white, wooden crosses.
In a news release about the heritage designation, Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Gene Makowsky said the province recognizes the importance of the site and its significant effect in shaping the identity and culture of Saskatchewan.
Leander Lane, whose greatgrandfather Julius Caesar Lane was one of the original Shiloh People, led the movement to restore the church and cemetery.
The church already had municipal heritage designation, but the provincial designation will protect it from further changes. Lane said no one will be able to change the nature of the site: if it needs new logs, for example, a modern product could not be used.
Leander Lane founded the nonprofit Shiloh Baptist Church and Cemetery Restoration Society in 2002. It raised tens of thousands of dollars over the years to restore the church. With the bulk of the restoration complete, the attention has turned to ongoing maintenance of the grounds and replacing some of the windows.
Lane said his ancestors saw the same Canadian government advertisements that others did, calling for immigrants. It soon became apparent that black people weren’t welcome, however.
Moves to curb black newcomers included then-prime minister Wilfrid Laurier’s cabinet approval in 1911 of an order-in-council to ban blacks from entering Canada. It never become law.
“When my (great) grandfather died, white people in Maidstone did not want black people in their cemetery. So they created Shiloh cemetery to bury him,” Lane said.
Lane learned much about his great-grandfather and put together a family tree.
Mayes’ family made a success of their farm, which the descendants own and rent to local farmers.
“I think we have this mentality that we can do anything if you really set your mind to it. Of course it comes from our history,” she said.
“That’s what my great-grandmother means to me ... she (was) a strong woman.”