| bio | Jilson, Josephine (1851-1925), of Shirley/Harvard, MA, was one of five children; her father died in 1854. In 1855,
the three sisters were admitted to Shirley; two of them left, but she stayed. She was trustee with Elder Holden and
Eldress Margaret Egelson and, in 1908, replacing the latter, was appointed to the Ministry to represent Shirley. She
used the Square House at Harvard as a curio-museum. She must have been a close friend of Sr. Annie Bell(e) Tuttle,
because in 1910 a "small piece of white silk was slipped into a typewriter in Harvard [MA] and the following was
inscribed: 'Dear Annie Bell Tuttle, I cannot find a truer word Nor fonder to caress you. Nor song nor poem have I
heard is sweeter than God Bless You. Josephine Jilson.''' (This piece of silk became a part of a silk scarf: Beverly
Gordon, 1980, p. 90.) After the closing of the community Eldress Josephine was assigned to the North F. at Mt.
Lebanon, NY. She died at the House of Mercy in Pittsfield, MA, but was buried in the Shaker cemetery at Shirley - the last
Shaker burial there. This was arranged for and presided over by Ministry Elder Walter Shephard.
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