Emily Parmely Collins

Emily Parmely Collins (August 11, 1814 – April 14, 1909); known as Emily Parmely Peltier after her first marriage and by her pen name, Justitia; was an American woman suffragist, women's rights activist, and writer. She was the first woman in the United States to establish a society focused on woman suffrage and women's rights, in South Bristol, New York in 1848.

She was an early participant in the abolitionism movement, the temperance movementas well as a pioneer in the women's suffrage movement in the United States. She believed that the full development of a woman's capacities to be of supreme importance to the well-being of humanity; and advocated through the press for woman's educational, industrial and political rights.

Emily Parmely Collins was born in Bristol, New York on August 11, 1814 to James Parmely and Lydia Robbins Donelson who were early settlers of the "Genesee Country".Her descendants on her father's side came from Kent County England and settled in Guilford, Connecticut in 1639.Her father fought during the Revolutionary War in the 9th Connecticut Regiment.

As a child Emily Parmely was sensitive and shy, preferring to be alone with her pets and books. Early on, she became an industrious reader, especially of history and poetry.

Pre-war

At age 16, Collins became a teacher of district number 11 in Burbee Hollow, Bristol, New York. She received a salary equal to male teachers, which was considered unusual at the time.

In 1832, she removed to Michigan with a brother where she taught in a log schoolhouse in the vicinity of Port Huron. On January 8, 1835, she married Charles Peltier, a merchant. They soon went to Detroit to live. Charles served as Post Trader at Fort Gratiot, and afterward Comptroller and Justice of the peace in Detroit, holding office through several administrations. They had one son, Pierre Desnoyers Peltier, M.D. (1835–1906). Charles died in Detroit.

Her second husband was Simri Collins (d. 1876, Louisiana), whom she married July 4, 1841. Simri was the son of Rev. Naron Coobe Collins, D. D., formerly of Connecticut, later of East Bloomfield, New York. They had one son, Emmett Burke Collins (1842–1872).

In 1848, she returned to Bristol, New York. She attended the Seneca Falls Convention in July. On October 19, she organized the first woman suffrage society in the world: the Woman's Equal Rights Union (alternately called the Equal Suffrage Society or the Equal Rights Association). In the same year, she sent the first petition to the legislature. In 1858, the family removed to Rochester, New York, remaining until 1869. Here, she was a member of the Unitarian church.

Civil War

Collins was a volunteer nurse in Virginia. Her two sons, one a surgeon, the other a lawyer who had just been admitted to the bar, accompanying her. She wrote:— "I served as a volunteer nurse through the campaign of 1864 at the front in the Shenandoah Valley, with both of my sons, Dr. P. D. Peltier and Captain E. Burke Collins.

Louisiana

In 1869, the family removed to Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, where Collins buried her second husband in 1876. Her second son, Captain E. Burke Collins, died in 1872. She was a resident of Louisiana for ten years. With Elizabeth Lisle Saxon, she continued her suffragist work.

In 1879, as a new State constitution was being framed, a paper from Collins, giving her ideas of what a just constitution should be, was read to the delegates and elicited praise from the New Orleans press.

Connecticut

In the same year, having leased her plantation, she removed to Hartford, Connecticut to live with her son, Pierre. In 1885, she organized with Frances Ellen Burr and others the Hartford Equal Rights Club, and was for many years its president, and later its honorary president.

She wrote occasional stories, to illustrate some principle, for the Pacific Rural and other journals. Not ambitious to acquire a literary reputation, and shrinking from publicity, she seldom appended her name. For several years, she wrote each week for the Hartford Journal, under the pen-name "Justitia", a column or two in support of human rights, especially the rights of woman. She also urged the same before each legislature of Connecticut. As a solution of the temperance issue, she advocated in the Hartford Examiner the exclusive manufacture and sale of liquor at cost by the government. She also urged a change from the electoral system to that of proportional representation, and industrial cooperation in place of competition.

Collins was a member of the Massachusetts Referendum League and of the Woman's Relief Corps. She spoke year after year before the legislature in support of the petition for woman suffrage, and addressed many audiences on various subjects. She became a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Hannah Woodruff Chapter, of Southington, Connecticut in October 1904. Her national number was 48316, and hers was the one hundredth name on the membership roll of "Real Daughters" in Connecticut.

She died on April 14, 1909, and was buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, Connecticut. In addition to her son, Pierre, she had three grandchildren, namely, Dr. Frank H. Peltier, of Hartford; Frederick D. Peltier, of New York, and Mrs. Florence Peltier Pope, of Boston; as well as four great-grandchildren, namely, Clinton Peltier Perry Pope, Frank H. (Who earned numerous patents and worked with Thomas Edison as well as other notable industrialists) and Genevieve, children of Dr. Frank H. Peltier; and Paul D., son of Frederick D. Peltier.