Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/197

192 stricken comforted, the tempted strengthened, the sinful forgiven, the cultured and aspiring made glad.

COLE, Miss Elizabeth, author, born in Darien, Wis., 16th January, 1856. Her father's name

was Parker M. Cole, and her mother's maiden name was Amelia Y. Frey. The latter was a descendant of the Freys and Herkimers whom Harold Frederic describes so accurately in " In the Valley." She was also a descendant of one of the early settlers of Detroit, named St. Martin, who was a man of note in those days, and whose house, built in 1703, still stands and is known as the "Old Cass House. All that concerns Amelia Cole is of interest to western people, because, like her daughter, Elizabeth, she was a well-known writer. Comtemporaneously their sketches and stories appeared in such periodicals as "Good Cheer," "Outing" and the "Current" Both were frequent contributors to the " Weekly Wisconsin. "Elizabeth Cole has also written acceptably for "SL Nicholas," "Good Housekeeping" and the " Housewife." She has done a great deal of excellent literary work, but her life has been exceedingly uneventful from the time she was born and brought up "in the edge of a little village, so small that the edge is very near the center." as she says, to the present time. Her mother died in 1889, and not long afterward she went to Pittsburgh, Pa., where she is at present living with a married sister. During her mother's lifetime the two made their home in Milwaukee. Their mutual gifts, their cheerful temperaments and the earnestness of their aims won for them many true friends in the best circles of that city.

COLLIER, Mrs. Ada Langworthy, poet, born in Dubuque, Iowa, 23rd December, 1843, in the first frame house ever built within the present bounds of the State of Iowa. Her father, a descendant of New England pioneers, was among the very first to explore the lead regions of Iowa, and he was one of the founders of the city of Dubuque. Her mother was a member of an old Baltimore family. None of the hardships and privation that go with pioneer life were known to the little Ada The lead mines were a source of wealth to her father and his brothers, and soon a group of spacious brick mansions arose on a beautiful bluff above the city, wherein dwelt the Langworthy households. In one of these Ada grew up, a strong, vigorous, attractive child. In early girl-hood she was for a time a pupil in a girls' school taught by Miss Catherine Beecher in Dubuque. Afterward she went to Lasell Seminary, Auburndale, Mass. Having always found she could accomplish anything she chose to undertake, she there thought she could do the last two years' work in one year, and had nearly succeeded, when she was taken ill of brain fever. In spite of that she was graduated in 1861, at the early age of seventeen In 1868 she became the wife of Robert Collier, and has since lived in Dubuque. She has one son. She began to write for periodicals in her girlhood. She is the author of many sketches, tales and short poems, of several novels, and of one long, narrative poem, "Lilith" (Boston, 1885). The last is her greatest work, nor can there be any doubt that she should be accounted a poet rather than a novelist.

COLLINS, Mrs. Delia, educator, philanthropist and reformer, born in Franklinton, Schoharie county. N. Y., 25th November, 1830 Her mother died when she was a young woman, and her father soon afterward moved to Michigan. Miss Delia Krum at the age of fourteen years entered the State Normal School in Albany, N. Y., and was graduated after the usual course. In 1846 she accepted the assistant principalship of a school in Geneseo, N. Y., associated with Henry W. Collins as principal. He was a graduate of the State Normal School. They were married in Franklinton in 1849. They moved to Elmira, N. Y., and Mr. Collins was largely instrumental in the surveying and