Shiloh Presbyterian Church Cemetery
National Register Listing
Street Address:
Elm Street, Grover, SC (Cherokee County)
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817711023
Description and Narrative:
The Shiloh Presbyterian Church Cemetery, located on both sides of the North Carolina-South Carolina state line, was established in 1780 in conjunction with the construction of the Shiloh Meeting House, the building in which the Shiloh Presbyterian Church congregation held its earliest services, and the burial of Revolutionary War hero William Patterson, who died on October 5, 1780, the day of the Battle of Kings Mountain, and was the first person interred at the cemetery. The cemetery is the oldest burying ground in the southeast section of Cleveland County, North Carolina, serving the Shiloh Presbyterian Church’s congregation and area settlers until the last person was interred at the cemetery in 1916. The cemetery is significant as a small, rural church cemetery with gravestones of artistic value. The majority of the gravestones possess the distinctive craftsmanship of noted York County, South Carolina stonecutters John Caveny, Robert C. Caveny, James Crawford, William N. Crawford and Robert M. Crawford. These gravestones were made from greenish schist and soapstone quarried from the Kings Mountain in South Carolina from 1780s to the 1820s, and marble blanks purchased from Charleston and Columbia from the 1830s to the 1870s. There is a combination of tombstone forms such as semicircular- and segmental-arched with rounded caps, discoidal shoulders, pointed arches, or beaded edges, and tombstones with tympanums with nineteenth-century motifs such as quarter sunbursts, eight-pointed compass stars, willow trees, hearts, and trees of life. The nominated property includes 104 gravestones in the North Carolina section of the property, and four gravestones in the South Carolina section. Listed in the National Register December 22, 2011.
Period of Significance:
1780 – 1906;1780;1906
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Art
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
December 12 2011
