By John Summers | WBR Independent | July 22, 2026
PORT ALLEN – On a Saturday morning in July, about 20 members of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church left their sanctuary on 7th Street and walked through Port Allen to a cemetery across town to honor a man most of them had only read about.
Rev. A. A. Ginn was Shiloh’s first pastor, elected in 1899 when the church was reorganized under the Fourth District Baptist Association. He led the congregation for more than 30 years before resigning in 1931. His gravesite, along with that of his wife Elise Ginn, was recently discovered in the Benevolent Cemetery at the corner of Louisiana Avenue and Eleanor Street, across from Cohn Elementary School, about a half-mile from the church.
“This is a very significant ceremony to honor the first pastor from 1899,” Dr. Raymond E. Allen Sr., Shiloh’s current pastor, said at the graveside on July 18.
Dressed in matching red church T-shirts and carrying a banner reading “Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, Est. 1899,” the group walked together from the church. A Port Allen Police unit escorted the procession with lights on. Some members carried umbrellas against the morning sun. Inside the sanctuary before the walk, an oval portrait of Rev. Ginn hung on the wall with a small plaque beneath it: “Rev. A.A. Ginn, 1899-1931.”…