Heritage designation for Saskatchewan church built by black settlers who were escaping racist Jim Crow laws
Completed in 1912, Shiloh Baptist Church, near Maidstone, provided a place of worship for the homesteaders
Author of the article:The Canadian Press
Rob Drinkwater
Publishing date:Sep 16, 2018
“The first time I walked in there it’s almost like I got hit in the gut with a fist. And I’m not a spiritual or a religious person by any means,” says Leander Lane, whose great-grandfather Julius Caesar Lane was among the community’s original families.
The church and its cemetery had been awarded in September 2018 heritage property designation by the Saskatchewan’s Culture Ministry who say it is the only remaining building from the first African-American farming community in the province.
Lane said Oklahoma, where the families originated, had been a destination for slaves from the U.S. South who were freed after the Civil War. But that changed when Oklahoma was granted statehood in 1907 and elected a segregationist government.
Looking to move again, Leander Lane says he believes his great-grandfather, who was born a slave in Virginia, sold as a slave in Mississippi and freed at the age of 15. He owned a couple hundred acres of land in Missouri and was the father of 16 children. Julius Caesar Lane visited Saskatchewan in 1909 with another man and scouted locations. They applied for homesteads in the Maidstone area and, in the spring of 1910, a dozen families packed up and left Oklahoma.
The nearly 20 families formed what came to be known as the Shiloh community, and Shiloh Baptist Church was a central part of their lives. It was built in 1912 and now serves as a museum.
Inside, next to a picture of Lane’s ancestor, is a picture of Mattie Mayes. More than a hundred years ago, she fled the racism of Oklahoma and its Jim Crow laws and settled on a farm near Maidstone, Sask.
Mayes was born in Oklahoma in the 1860s as a slave. She fled the racism and bigotry that was still rampant in the United States after the American Civil War ended. She eventually came to Canada, and helped settle the Shiloh community.
Shiloh Baptist Church is hallowed ground for Crystal Mayes.
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 in September 2018.
Mayes, a Saskatoon nurse, is a director with the Saskatchewan African Canadian Heritage Museum, which has been active in sharing the history of African Canadians to all Saskatchewan residents. Her siblings have also achieved much success: her brother was an NFL player, one sister was an internationally competitive bobsledder and another sister was the president of the Saskatchewan Veterinary Association.
“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.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/4455143/s...e-designation/
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada...ge-designation