Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/344

 COLLINS

COLLINS

county in the state assembly and was a member of the state constitutional convention of 1S'21. He was a representative in the 18th congress, 1823-25, and at the close of the last session, March 3, 1825, he retired from public life. His son William, born in Oneida county, was also a lawyer in Lowville, and a representative in the 80th congress, later removing to Cleveland, Ohio Ela Collins died at Lowville, N.Y., Nov. 23, 1848.

COLLINS, Jennie, philanthropist, was born in Amoskeag, N.H., in 1828. She was left an orphan when a mere child and received her edu- cation at the hands of her grandmother, a Quakeress. When fourteen years old her grand- mother died and she became a mill hand in Lowell and in Lawrence, and subsequently nurse in the family of Judge Lowell of Boston. She then engaged as a vest maker and while thus employed organized, in 1861, a soldiers' relief asso- ciation among her shopmates, the first organiza- tion of that character in Boston. She then began a systematic canvass for funds to support sol- diers' homes and to care for the soldiers wounded in battle, especially directing her efforts toward procuring artificial limbs. Her necessities forced her to have frequent recourse to her needle for her personal support and in the midst of this she conducted a free school for the education of sol- diers' children. In 1868 she appeared on the platform in behalf of working women and also conducted a class in English history in connec- tion with the Church of the Unity. In 1869 she addressed the convention of working men, held in Boston, to secure a limit of eight hours for a working day, and afterward spoke in all the manufacturing towns in Massachusetts, the sub- ject having become a political issue. In January, 1870, she lectured before the Woman suffrage association in Washington, D.C., and also occu- pied various pulpits. In the summer she held a series of meetings on Boston Common looking to the provision for amusement for working women at a low price of admission. This led to the estab- lishment of " Boffin's Bower " July 25, 1870, where she provided not only amusement but food, clothing and lodging, when necessary, and found employment for needy women. During the great fire in Boston she so practically demonstrated the benefit of her charity that thereafter it was liber- ally supported. She published Nattire's Aristoc- racy ; or Battles and Wounds in Time of Peace (1871). She died in Brookline, Mass., July 20, 1887.

COLLINS, John, governor of Rhode Island, was born in Newport, R.I., June 8, 1717. He was an active patriot and one of a committee sent by the general assembly of Rhode Island to General Washington in September, 1776, to inform him of the condition of the colony and to consult as to its defence. He was a delegate to the Continental

congress, 1778-83. In 1786 he was chosen gov- ernor of the state by the advocates of paper money. By his casting vote when there was a tie in the senate, he secured the calling of a con- vention to decide upon the acceptance of the con- stitution of the United States. This vote made him unpopular and he was not re-elected to the governorship in 1789. His signing the articles of confederation increased his unpopularity. He died in Newport, R.I., March 8, 1795.

COLLINS, Joseph William, statistician, was^ born at Islesboro, Maine, Aug. 8, 1839; son of David, Jr., and Eliza (Sawyer), grandson of David and Elizabeth (Barter), and great-grandson of John Collins, who was born at Castine, Maine, about 1765. He was brought up a fisher-boy and had few educational advantages. He early went to sea on a fishing craft and there gained the general knowledge that fit- ted liim for his life work. He studied mathematics and the higher English branches on ship- board. In 1879 he was employed by the U.S. fish commission on statistics of New England fisheries and in 1880 was sent by the government to the International Fischere Ausstelhiny at Berlin on the staff of the U.S. commis- sioner. In December, 1880, he was ordered to Washington to prepare reports on the fish- eries of the country which were published in Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States. In 1883 he attended the International fisheries- exposition in London. He designed the U.S. fish commission schooner Grampus, and her advent in 1886 was the signal for a radical change in the construction and equipment of vessels engaged in the fishing industries. His practical sugges- tions led to the establishment of the New Eng- land halibut fishing industry off the Iceland coasts, to the protection of oyster beds from the depredations of star- fishes, the establishment of a profitable ocean fishery at Tampa, Fla., and many improvements in the Pacific coast fisheries. He commanded the schooner Grampus, 1886-88, and in 1887 he discovered and secured a larger collection of the bones of the Great Auk than were before possessed by all the museums of the world. He was an expert adviser of the Ameri- can commissioners in the International fisheries commission at Washington in 1887-88. He was