Biographical Database of Black Woman Suffragists
Biography of Anna Collins, 1865-1918
By Leah Pierre, undergraduate student, Rosemont College, Rosemont, Penn.
Mary Anarchy “Anna” Stewart was born in the mid-1860s in Georgia or Alabama to Readman and Matilda Stewart. She grew up in Taliaferro, Georgia, and had at least two daughters. Her older daughter was born in the early 1880s, and her second, Mary [Daniel], was born September 1, 1884. Mary Anarchy Stewart married Harry Daniel on December 27, 1884, in Taliaferro. By 1900, she had moved to Brooklyn, New York, and was remarried to George Collins. The Collinses along with Mary Daniel lived on Lafayette Street with Anna Daniel's brother Robert Stewart and his wife Carrie Stewart. By 1910, a grandchild named Mary Dixon was living with the Collinses.
In May 1912, Anna Collins became a member of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA). By July, she had joined the Mother's Day Nursery committee with the YWCA in Brooklyn. A year later, she served as a delegate at the fifth annual meeting of the Empire State Federation of Women's Clubs (ESFWC) in Buffalo, where they passed a resolution that endorsed suffrage. Collins exemplified the many lower-class women of the Empire State Federation of Colored Women, who worked full-time and raised families but still devoted their free time to volunteering in their communities.
References in newspaper to Anna Collins are rare. She appears on the sick list in the New York Age in 1915 and 1916, she traveled to Chicago to visit her daughter, Jessalyn Harden, for the Christmas holidays in 1917. Although her date of death cannot be confirmed, George Collins appeared as a widower in the 1920 census. It is likely that Anna Collins was buried in Crawfordsville, Georgia, which is where her brother Robert, a prominent grocery store owner in Brooklyn, was also interred in 1926.
SOURCES:
“Brooklyn,” New York Age (New York, NY), Dec. 29, 1917, Newspapers.com.
“Brooklyn Notes,” New York Age(New York, NY), Jul. 11, 1912, Newspapers.com.
“Brooklyn Notes,” New York Age(New York, NY), Aug. 5, 1915, Newspapers.com.
“Brooklyn Notes,” New York Age(New York, NY), Sept. 30, 1915, Newspapers.com.
“Brooklyn Notes,” New York Age(New York, NY), Feb. 10, 1916, Newspapers.com.
“Female Smokers Are Criticised,” New York Age (New York, NY), Jul. 10, 1913, Newspapers.com.
Georgia, Marriage Records From Select Counties, 1828-1978. Harry Daniel, December 27, 1884, Taliaferro, GA. Ancestry Library Ed.
New York State Census 1915, s.v. “Mary [A] Collins, Kings, NY.” Ancestry Library Ed.
“Pioneer Negro Grocer in Downtown Brooklyn, Dead.” New York Age(New York, NY), Mar. 13, 1926, Newspapers.com.
United States Census 1870, 1880, s.v. “Anarchy Stwart, Taliaferro, GA.” HeritageQuest.
United States Census 1900, 1910, s.v. “Anna Collins, Lafayette St., Brooklyn, Kings, NY.” HeritageQuest.
United States Census 1920, s.v. “George Collins, Lafayette St., Brooklyn, Kings, NY.” HeritageQuest.
“Young Women's Christian Association Notes,” New York Age(New York, NY), May 2, 1912, Newspapers.com
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