Woman of the Century/Emeline S. Burlingame

BURLINGAME, Mrs. Emeline S., editor and evangelist, born in Smithfield, R. I., 22nd September, 1836. Her maiden name was Emeline Stanley Aldrich. Her father was a public speaker of ability, and her mother was a woman of much energy. After graduating in the Providence high school at the age of fifteen, she pursued a course of study in the Rhode Island Normal School, and then taught five years. In November, 1859, she was married to Luther R. Burlingame and subsequently lived in Wellshoro, Pa., and Whitesboro. N. Y., afterward removing to Dover, N. H., and then back to her home in Providence. She early became active in Christian work and, while living in Dover, Ix rame a regular contributor to the "Morning Star" and "Little Star," published by the Free Baptists. About the same time she became editor of the "Myrtle," a paper for children. On her removal to Providence sin- assisted her husband in editing "Town and Country," a temperance paper. In 1873 she was elected president of the Free Baptist Woman's Missionary Society, which position she held fur thirteen years, resigning when elected editor of the "Missionary Helper, " the organ of the society. She Introduced into the magazine features which made it a helper to missionary' workers. In 1879 she was elected corresponding secretary and organizer for the Rhode Island EMELINE S. BURLINGAME. Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and began at once to address audiences and to organize unions in different parts of the State. In 1884 she was elected president of the Union and devoted the next seven years to speaking and planning in its interest. In the securing of a prohibitory amendment to the constitution of Rhode Island, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union was the acknowledged leader, and to that work Mrs. Burlingame bent the energy of her life. In 1889 she was a delegate to the General Conference from the Rhode Island Free Baptist Association, that being the first year when women were sent as delegates to that body. In 1890 she was licensed to preach by the Rhode Island Free Baptist Ministers' Association. In 1891, being seriously worn by her prolonged labors for temperance, she resigned the presidency of the Rhode Island Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and was elected National Woman's Christian Temperance Union evangelist. She soon after accepted the position of general agent of the Free Baptist Woman's Missionary Society, and since that time has been traveling, visiting quarterly and yearly conferences and churches, and addressing them on the broadest phases of missionary work, including the important reforms of the day.