The Malden Library will be closed this Thursday June 19th, in honor of Juneteenth. We reopen again for Friday from 9-6pm and then Saturday from 9-1pm with the start of our summer Saturday hours. While we are closed feel free to enjoy the Malden Juneteenth Festival. And if you would rather stay in and avoid the heat, check out our online database ProQuest: Black Freedom Struggle for some really interesting topics on the African American experience in the United States.

And speaking of Juneteenth…here is a little history you might find fascinating…

Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States. It is celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the ending of slavery in the United States. William Shiloh was one of many former enslaved men and women that came north after freedom to make a new life in Malden.

William Shiloh was owner of Shiloh & Company, a barbershop on the south side of Pleasant Street. The business was listed in city directories as early as 1857. William was succeeded by his son, C. D. Shiloh, who was a photographer and architect.

According to An Early History of Malden, William Shiloh was working at his shop on the day of the bank robbery and murder of Frank Converse in 1863. William provided Franks’ father Elisha Converse a list of everyone he saw who entered and exited the bank the day of the murder. He was thanked by the family and records indicate that Elisha Converse built Shiloh and his family a house on Walnut Street, an area later known as Shiloh’s Hill.

A poem “Shiloh & Co.” was written by John Holland and published in the Star Streaks in 1870.

“What numerous barbers arrive in our town.
The first raise their pole and they next take it down.
Because there’s no man can successfully go,
And hold out his own against Shiloh & Co.;
For who can a razor so tastefully strap,
Or frizz up the curls on a dandified chap.”

“Let me of all nations in Malden unite.
To Do up the thing that is perfectly right.
Raise a shout that shall bring down the mountain
echo,
For Colfax and Grant, and for Shiloh & Co.
Their weapons are peerless in peace or in war,
And when there’s no fighting time they tune the guitar’
And the music they play makes our rooster birds crow,
Tis “The Star Spangled Banner” and Shiloh & Co.”