The Shiloh Woods


Get off I-75 at the Micanopy Exit

Go west, young man, go west on CR 234 for a mile and a half and you cross the Marion-Alachua County Line. You are now entering the northern unofficial limits of the community of Shiloh.


Horse Farms and Cattle Ranches

The road now changes to CR 329. As you go further south you will pass by homes of the Feasters and their relatives, the Zetrouers and their relatives. Much of the area is hammock land of pine, liveoak and sweet gum. What used to be small tracts of land that was used for truck farming, has now been consolidated into larger tracts consisting of horse farms or cattle ranches. You will see that the area is sparsely settled; many of the families have held on their land and passed it down to their descendents. Other old name families in the area are Smiths, Leitners and Geigers. They were among the early settlers of Florida in the 1800's.


The Little Church in the Wildwood

About two miles from the county line you just passed, turn left at the crossroad where CR 329 meets CR 320. A half mile further on the right you will see the community's namesake, the Shiloh United Methodist Church. It was originally built of heart pine which was sawed at the local sawmill of Jacob Muscoe Feaster in the middle 1800's. It was replaced with a concrete block structure in 1955. The first service in the new church was the wedding of Jacob and Annette Feaster. The church is situated in a grove of longleaf pine trees which still show the scars of being tapped for rosin many years ago to make turpentine. You can also see bumps on some of the tree trunks about waist high caused by ingrown horseshoes. They were nailed to the trees so that the horses which brought parishioners to church could be hitched and waiting until church services were over. Behind the church is an old cemetery in which you will find the graves of many of the community's former residents, some veterans of the Civil War and the other wars since.


Jacob Feaster
afn07644@afn.org

You are visitor number since 8 May 1996.

Copyright & copy; 1996 Jacob Feaster
This Home Page was created by Jacob Feaster
Micanopy, FL 32667
(with help from Chris Curry)
Revised Wednesday, May 8, 1996 10:07:01 AM