She stated, “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 made the decision and was baptized in April, 1851, by Rev.

She went on to say that, “The Roger Williams Church opened its doors to advocates of anti-slavery, temperance, and the broader life for women.

[6][7] On Thanksgiving Day, November 1859, she married Luther Rawson Burlingame, a Brown University man, class of 1857, from Pennsylvania.

[9][6][7] In 1869, Dr. Dio Lewis gave the lecture in Dover that he would give again three years later in Hillsboro, Ohio, where it inspired the woman's temperance crusade and led to the organization of the W.C.T.U.

Burlingame was a member of this committee, presided at the great mass meetings held, and was offered the leadership of the movement, which she declined.

M. M. H. Hills came to my house and told me I had been elected president of the Free Baptist W.M.S., just organized at the New Hampshire Yearly Meeting.

It had been the custom for women's societies in the denomination to ask a minister to preside, read reports and conduct all public business.

Ebenezer Knowlton, who had formerly conducted the exercises for the women, sat in the front pew, ready to grasp the helm should anything go wrong.

Knowlton came and congratulated her and said, "The brethren will have to look out for their laurels after this.”[10] While living in Dover, she served as editor of The Myrtle, under Dr. Day, and, at his request, contributed regularly to the Little Star, under the pseudonym, "Aunt Stomly", while in The Myrtle, for articles not editorial, her pen name was "Cousin Emeline".

[11] On her removal to Providence, she assisted her husband in editing Town and Country, a temperance paper.

was the acknowledged leader, and to that work Burlingame gave all her attention,[12] continuing with equal vigor the struggle for the retention of the amendment when attacked by the combined powers of the liquor traffic.

After giving up her state office in the W. C. T. U., she was appointed, through Miss Willard's influence, National Evangelist.

As a sample of her activities we quote, “For several years I had the work connected with the Presidency of the Rhode island W.C.T.U., 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.”[10] It was in 1886, that Burlingame resigned her position as President of the W.M.S.

For a year and a half Hillsdale, Michigan, became her home, traveling twice from Maine to Dakota, encouraging auxiliaries, organizing new ones, visiting yearly and quarterly meetings, preaching everywhere the Gospel of an “Applied Christianity.” At the General Conference held in Minneapolis in 1883, women were made members of the Executive committee of the Foreign Mission Society (F.M.S.).

About the time, the Methodists refused Frances Willard a seat in their General Conference, Free Baptists decided to grant women representation in their highest legislative body.

Accordingly, several women were elected members of the General Conference which met at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in 1889.

On July 5, 1892, she married Oren Burbank Cheney, resident of Bates College, and went to live in Lewiston, Maine.

[14] In Lewiston, Burlingame worked with the young women, leading them to formulate a self-governing platform of principles and rules.

[13] Serving for ten years as President of the National Free Baptist W.M.S., Burlingame became convinced that women as a disfranchised class were powerless to carry on efficient mission and reform work.

Five children were born to them, two surviving to adult life, Luther Day of Providence, Rhode Island, and Minnie Thomas of Arizona.

[16] Emeline S. Burlingame died February 25, 1923, in Providence, and was buried at the city's Swan Point Cemetery.