Michael F. Collins (September 27, 1854 in

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

Rensselaer County, New York Rensselaer County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 161,130. Its county seat is Troy, New York, Troy. The county is named ...

– December 22, 1928) was an American newspaper publisher and politician from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Life

He was the son of Patrick Collins (died 1876), a tailor who came from

County Limerick County Limerick () is a western Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Reg ...

to Troy in 1848. Michael attended the common schools, and then became a

typesetter Typesetting is the composition of Written language, text for publication, display, or distribution by means of arranging metal type, physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or ''glyphs'' in digital systems representing ''char ...

and

printer Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * James Printer (1640 ...

working for the ''Troy Weekly'' and then the ''Troy Press''. In 1877, during a printers strike, Collins and seven other newspaper employees founded the ''Troy Evening Standard''. He was City Editor at the ''Standard'' until 1879, when he bought the ''Sunday Trojan'' and renamed it the ''Troy Observer''. In 1880, he married Caroline E. O'Sullivan, and they had six children. Collins was a Democratic member of the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Ass ...

(Rensselaer Co., 1st D.) in

1886 Events January * January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British rule in Burma, British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885. * January 5–January 9, 9 – Robert Louis Stevenson ...

and

1887 Events January * January 11 – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the Académie Nationale de Médecine, by Dr. Joseph Grancher. * January 20 ** The United States Senate allows the United States Navy to lease Pearl Har ...

. He was a member of the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, while the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Established in 1777 by the Constitution of New York, its members are elected to two-year terms with no term l ...

(16th D.) from 1888 to 1891, sitting in the 111th, 112th, 113th and

114th New York State Legislature The 114th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 6 to April 30, 1891, during the seventh year of David B. Hill's governorship, in Albany. Background Under the pr ...

s. He was again a member of the State Senate (18th D.) in

1894 Events January * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire. * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United States. * Ja ...

and

1895 Events January * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island (off French Guiana) on what is much later admitted to be a false charge of tr ...

. He died on December 22, 1928; was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in Troy.

Sources

''The New York Red Book''
compiled by Edgar L. Murlin (published by James B. Lyon, Albany NY, 1897; pg. 403f and 505f)
Biographical sketches of the members of the Legislature
in ''The Evening Journal Almanac'' (1888)

in NYT on December 23, 1928 (subscription required)

transcribed from ''Landmarks of Rensselaer County, NY'' by George Baker Anderson (1897)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Michael F 1854 births 1928 deaths Democratic Party New York (state) state senators Politicians from Troy, New York Democratic Party members of the New York State Assembly 19th-century American newspaper editors Journalists from New York (state) 19th-century members of the New York State Legislature