Clarence D Tillson

TILLSON

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 3/10/2009 at 11:30:04

Clarence D Tillson, life is meaning less it is universal and coherent. It is the helpful spirit of the times that strength is found and when much good is accomplished. The concerted efforts of the day are those which lead t results and there has been no one element of greater importance to the world than that represented by fraternities, in their helpful spirit bringing aid to those who through cooperation with others have also aided their fellow men. Clarence D Tillson is the founder of one of these fraternal organizations and his effort in this direction was a humanitarian spirit as well as business enterprise.
Mr Tillson was born March 21, 1871, in Boone, Iowa, where he still makes his home, his parents being Josiah P and Olive (Lucas) Tillson, the former a native of New York, and the latter of Boone county, Illinois. The father was a son of Cephas Tillson and the family was of English lineage. He was born in the Empire state and died at the age of seventy years, while his wife reached the age of eighty-eight years.
In the public schools Clarence D Tillson began his early education and continued in the high schools of Boone, being a graduate and the valedictorian of the class of 1889. Later he attended Cornell College at Mount Vernon, Iowa for two years and then became a student in the Gem City Business College of Quincy, Illinois, where he completed a business and shorthand course in 1892. For one years thereafter he as employed as a shorthand reporter in St Louis, Missouri. On the expiration of that period he returned to Boone, where he entered the service of the Northwestern Railroad Company, with which he continued for a year and a half. He next became stenographer for the National Building and Savings Association, with which he was connected until September 1900. During this time he had taken a deep interest in fraternal societies, and in August, 1900, in connection with B c Wood, now deceased, as head consul, he was the chief promulgator of the new organization of Woodcraft known as the Fraternal choppers of America, the general office of the organization being at Boone. On the death of Mr Wood, H A Miller became head consul, while C D Tillson was made head clerk. Other prominent men of the state filled the other important positions and the society has already won a large following. Mr Tillson is also interested in Boone real estate and is the owner of considerable valuable property.
In 1897 occurred the marriage of MR Tillson and Miss Kittie Hill, a daughter of J H and Rebecca (Moore) Hill. The children born of this union are Elizabeth and Ralph C. Mrs Tillson is connected with the Daughters of the American Revolution. Socially Mr Tillson is identified with the Masonic Lodge of Boone, of which he is worshipful master. He has also taken the degrees of the chapter and the commandery and has crossed the sands of the desert with the Mystic Shrine. Both he and his wife belong to the Eastern Star Lodge and he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and the Woodmen of the world. Under his able guidance the new organization, the Fraternal Choppers, is winning creditable and gratifying success, having already been endorsed by many prominent and reliable men throughout this section of the country.

1902 Boone County History Book