Shaker Eldress: Journey in Zion - Paperback

Sarah Jenkins was an historical woman who became Lead Eldress in the Ministry at Pleasant Hill Shaker Village. Born into a South Carolina presbyterian family, she and her family moved to the frontier of Indiana when she was a young woman. In 1808 Shaker missionaries visited that area and convinced her and others in the Jenkins and Gill families to join that religious movement. Sarah's story is told through her inner world and the exterior Shaker establishment taking place around her as she moved from West Union in Indiana, to Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. Within the book's 428 pages, Shaker material culture is described as it related to her life, such as cheese making and silk worm cultivation. Among the book's many subjects are Shaker religious belief and worship, their commitment to celibacy, their life near the Shawnee during the Battle of Tippecanoe, their relationship with one another and with other Shaker villages, their pacifist stance during the Civil War, their spiritualism, and their trade with the outside world. Sarah's life encompassed the beginning of western Shaker practice, its flowering, and its decline. A true Shaker, her life progressed as a journey in "Zion on earth." As one reviewer stated, "Sarah Jenkins' story, and the whole Shaker way of life, came alive for me - and in a very believable way."