ALLRED, JOSEPH - The Rambles & Rags of Shiloh

"The prominent biblical city of Shiloh was first mentioned in the Book of Joshua: And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them" (Joshua 18:1) It held a perhaps unsurpassed place of importance for the Israelites until the construction of Solomon's Temple and elevation of Jerusalem as the capital of a united Israel some centuries later. The Shiloh, which is the primary matter of interest here, is not the biblical city, but rather a namesake community in rural Overton County, Tennessee, situated in the Upper Cumberland region of the Appalachian Plateau near the Tennessee/Kentucky border. It isn't a town, but a community made up of a church, two cemeteries, a smattering of houses, some farmland surrounded by forested hills, and a mostly gravel road. The West Fork of the Obey River tumbles through the area at a fairly leisurely pace, and Joseph's father, who was bo