Emeline S. Burlingame (born Aldrich; after her first marriage, Burlingame; after her second marriage, Cheney; pen names Aunt Stomly and Cousin Emeline; September 22, 1836 – February 25, 1923) was an American editor, evangelist, and suffragist. She served as president of the Rhode Island Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) for seven years. She was the first president of the Free Baptist Woman's Missionary Society (WMS or FBWMS). She was a licensed preacher and attended the Free Baptist triennial conference three times as a delegate. Burlingame worked for several religious publications, including serving as editor of the Missionary Helper for eight years. She played a key role in helping Rhode Island pass a state constitutional prohibition from 1884 to 1887. She was considered an important figure in the suffrage movement. She wrote a leaflet titled, “An Appeal to Women’s Missionary Societies Urging Church Women to Support Woman Suffrage as a Step Toward More Efficient Missionary Work,” which was printed and shared by the National American Woman Suffrage Association among missionary groups.
Early life and education
Emeline Stanley Aldrich was born on September 22, 1836, in Union Village, which was then part of Smithfield, Rhode Island (now known as North Smithfield, Rhode Island). Her parents were Wellington Aldrich and Celeste Angell Aldrich (1811–1885).
Until she married, Emeline lived in Providence, Rhode Island. At age 12, she entered Providence High School and graduated at 15. After graduating, she began teaching and earned money to attend the Rhode Island Normal School (now Rhode Island College) for one year. During school, she did well in memory work, writing, and public speaking. Her first trip outside her home state was by carriage to Boston when she was 15. Two years later, she traveled by train to New York City.
Before she was three years old, her mother began taking Burlingame to the Roger Williams Church. Each Sunday, Burlingame attended Sunday School and church in the morning and returned for another church service in the afternoon. At age 15, her Sunday school teacher asked her if she was ready to become a Christian. Burlingame responded, “The thought at once came forcibly to me that I should never become a Christian in future time; it must be in some present moment.” She decided to become a Christian and was baptized in April 1851 by Rev. Eli Noyes, who had returned from India and was the pastor of the Roger Williams Church. She later said, “The Roger Williams Church opened its doors to advocates of anti-slavery, temperance, and the broader life for women. Few churches of other religious groups did.”
Career
After finishing her schooling, she worked as a teacher for five years.
On Thanksgiving Day, November 1859, she married Luther Rawson Burlingame, a man who graduated from Brown University in 1857 and was from Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Burlingame lived in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, for two years, where Mr. Burlingame was the principal of the Academy. They then moved to Whitesboro, New York, where Mr. Burlingame taught Greek and Latin at the Free Baptist Seminary for six years. Later, they lived in Dover, New Hampshire, for seven years. Mr. Burlingame worked as a Publishing Agent for the Free Baptist Publishing Establishment. In Dover, she began her career as a writer and speaker. She wrote articles for the Morning Star, Little Star, and The Myrtle, and she became the editor of The Myrtle during her time in Dover.
In 1869, Dr. Dio Lewis gave a lecture in Dover. He gave the same lecture again in 1872 in Hillsboro, Ohio, where it inspired the woman’s temperance movement and led to the creation of the WCTU. In Dover, a group of women was formed, meetings were held, and saloons were visited. Burlingame was part of this group, led the large meetings, and was offered the chance to lead the movement, which she refused. In June 1873, Mrs. M. M. H. Hills told Burlingame that she had been elected president of the Free Baptist WMS, a new organization formed at the New Hampshire Yearly Meeting. Burlingame decided to take the role seriously. At that time, it was common for men to lead women’s groups, but she changed this by allowing women to manage their own work. She remembered the first time she led the Anniversaries in 1873 at Farmington, New Hampshire. Prominent men, including Dr. O. B. Cheney and Rev. Ebenezer Knowlton, sat in the front pew, ready to help if needed. Burlingame felt nervous and stood beside the pulpit instead of behind it. Other leaders performed their duties well. At the end of the event, Rev. Knowlton congratulated her and said, “The men will have to watch their achievements after this.”
While living in Dover, she worked as the editor of The Myrtle under Dr. Day. At his request, she also wrote regularly for Little Star using the name “Aunt Stomly.” For articles not related to editing, she used the name “Cousin Emeline” in The Myrtle. She also wrote for the Morning Star for several years.
In 1874, when the family moved to Providence, she helped her husband edit Town and Country, a temperance newspaper. She served as president of the Free Baptist WMS from 1873 to 1886. In 1886, she was chosen as editor of the Missionary Helper, the official publication of the society, and added new features to make it helpful for missionary workers.
In the fall of 1874, the General Conference met with the Roger Williams Church. This meeting was notable because it was the first time a woman presided over a public meeting of the WMS.
In 1879, she was chosen as the corresponding secretary and organizer for the Rhode Island WCTU. She immediately began speaking to audiences and organizing groups across the state.
In 1884, she became president of the Rhode Island WCTU and spent the next seven years speaking and planning for the organization. Her speeches were given in churches of nearly all denominations, at religious conferences, legislative committees, Sunday schools, day schools, camp meetings, and other places where people gathered. The WCTU led the effort to add a prohibition amendment to the Rhode Island Constitution, and Burlingame focused all her energy on this work. She also worked hard to keep the amendment in place when it was challenged by those who supported the liquor industry.
As president of the WMS, she was asked to give the dedicatory speech at Myrtle Hall, Storer College, on May 30, 1879. She made her first trip alone and gave a reading the night before to pay for the journey. Rev. A. H. Morrell invited her to preach at his church one Sunday morning. She did so, and later gave many sermons. After moving to Providence, she became actively involved with the WCTU movement, which was only a few months old. She first worked with the Providence Union, then became the corresponding secretary of the State Union, and served as president from 1884 to 1890. During her presidency, the campaign for a three-year prohibition amendment to the state constitution (1886–1889) was successful. She also worked hard to gain voting rights for women in 1887. She remained interested in these movements and saw both goals achieved nationwide. After leaving her state role in the WCTU, she was appointed National Evangelist through Miss Willard’s support. This allowed her to speak about her cause anywhere. As an example of her work, she said, “For several years I had the work connected with the Presidency of the Rhode Island WCTU, speaking once or more every Sunday, attending frequent conventions, keeping track of work at Headquarters and the interests of the local Unions, editing a semimonthly edition of the Outlook, and the monthly Missionary Helper.”
In 1886, Burlingame resigned as president of the WMS. In January 1887, she became editor of the Missionary Helper and held this position for eight years, adding new sections to the magazine.
In 1889, she was a delegate to the General Conference from the Rhode Island Free Baptist Association. This was the first year women were sent as delegates to that group.
In 1890, she was licensed to preach by the Rhode Island Free Baptist Ministers’ Association. That year, at a meeting in Brooklyn, she was chosen as the traveling agent for the WMS. For a year and a half, Hillsdale, Michigan, became her home. She traveled twice from Maine to Dakota, encouraging existing groups, starting new ones, visiting yearly and quarterly meetings, and preaching the message of “Applied Christianity.” At the General Conference in Minneapolis in 1883, women were made members of the Executive Committee of the Foreign Mission Society (FMS). Burlingame was not only a member but also one of its vice-presidents. She remained a member until the FMS was merged into the General Conference Board. Around the same time, the Methodists refused Frances Willard a seat in their General Conference, but the Free Baptists decided to allow women to be part of their highest legislative body. As a result, several women were elected to the General Conference that met in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in 1889. Burlingame was one of these women and served on every General Conference until 1904, when she resigned due to a change in residence. In 1889, the benevolent societies were combined into the Conference Board. Burlingame was elected as
Personal life
She married Luther Rawson Burlingame on November 24, 1859. Five children were born to them, but only two lived to become adults: Luther Day of Providence, Rhode Island, and Minnie Thomas of Arizona.
She married Rev. Oren Burbank Cheney on July 5, 1892. In 1898, Dr. and Mrs. Cheney finished the Chautauqua Reading Course and graduated at the Chautauqua Assembly in Ocean Park, Maine. After Dr. Cheney died in 1903, Burlingame Cheney lived with her daughter. On her 70th birthday, she wrote a poem titled, "I’m Seventy Years Old Today." That year, while living in Hollywood, California, she wrote a biography about her husband. At age 85, she sometimes appeared at missionary or temperance events.
In 1918, she returned to Providence to live with her son. Emeline S. Burlingame died on February 25, 1923, in Providence, and was buried at the city's Swan Point Cemetery.