Graveyard Shift
SHILOH CEMETERY 1043-1143 CR 139, Hutto.
The nearly 3-acre patch of green off County Road 139 in Hutto was covered in weeds and trash for decades. Several of the remaining tombstones and wooden markers were chipped and rotting. Most passersby likely thought the site was an overgrown field with an illegal dumping ground in the back. Until Hutto resident Robyn Bieber and organizations including Black Families of Hutto fought to clear the refuse and add signage, Shiloh Cemetery was one of roughly a couple hundred aging Black cemeteries across Texas that could have faded away. But now the cemetery is accessible to the public, providing generations of descendants access to where their ancestors were laid to rest.
“I was astounded at how bad these cemeteries can get,” says Bieber, a
