(Original bio by Dutch Ramsdell):

Mr. Collins was the son of Alpheus Collins and Betsey Hall. He graduated from the University of Michigan and taught at Albion College. He was a member of the first Methodist Episcopal mission team to go to China, departing in 1847. There he founded Hwa Nan College in Foochow. Mr. Collins was forced to return home when he contracted Tuberculosis and died at his home in Unadilla.

(Additional bio by Raleigh Rasmussen Jacques):

Judson Dwight Collins was born the seventh of 11 children born to his parents. According to United Methodist Church archives he was named for Adoniram Judson a pioneer missionary in Burma.

"He was an enthusiastic student of natural history. As a boy he would bring home all kinds of reptiles from the field, even carrying venomous snakes in his hand. During his college life the walls of his room were covered with worms, and flies, and bugs. He made excursions to the woods analyzing rare flowers and practicing oratory in the presence of the forest."

After graduating from the University of Michigan he took leave of Ann Arbor by hitching a ride on some neighbor's wagon. He "reached home at sundown. There is no place like home. I found our people enjoying good health, the farm looking as pleasant as any other place I know of on this earth." Now back at home, he had access to his traveling companion, his horse Jane, who he fondly referred to as "old Jane."

He taught one year at Albion College before accepting a sought-after assignment as the first Methodist Episcopal minister to go to China as a missionary. He wanted to get his parents' blessing for such a trip, so on March 27, 1848 he went home -- "Engaged the visit to think with my parents about going to China. Father is, I think, willing that I should go and mother will not keep me, if I think it my duty. I want to be little and unknown behind the cross. I want not to be my own but Christ's."

When he left for his assignment in Foochow, China, he saw the ocean for the first time. He wrote, "I have been watching the water with delight. To see huge waves go swelling higher and higher until they consummate themselves in the snowy whitecaps and with most graceful motion sink back again till they form a mottled bosom of a basin between successive surges is indescribably beautiful to my sight."

"But all was not fair with the sailor!"...

Before too very long Judson wrote, "About six o'clock the wind began to increase. I began to feel somewhat uneasy, but said nothing to anyone. About seven o'clock we went down to supper. I ate a small bit of toast and drank some water. Ere all were done I asked to be excused, and walking to the vessel's side deposited my supper with the wild waves below." It took him five and a half months to get to his assignment.

Judson lived in Foochow for a few years, where he founded the first public school. "Like all missionaries he had to tackle the Chinese language, which has been called 'the devil's invention, to keep the gospel out.'"

Unfortunately he got sick and was eventually sent home. In February 1849 he nearly died of typhoid fever. Then in January 1850 he wrote that "During the past three months I have been the subject of growing indisposition. My system seems fast sinking under a derangement of the bowels, passing with a settled dysentery." He left China reluctantly, only after friends had convinced him he needed to get home to recuperate.

When he arrived home he was so wasted away that his mother did not recognize him at first. The reunion with his family was described as "so thrilling as to have few, if any, parallels."

For a period of time there was an annual meeting in Foochow held in Judson's memory. One man found in China old people who knew him and loved him. He asked one old Chinese woman what Judson looked like and she said, "He looked like the Bible says David looked." (1 Samuel 16:12): "Now he was ruddy and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look at."

The final entry in Judson's journal (which was donated to the University of Michigan) is dated Saturday, April 9, 1852. "Nearly faint away after leading horse to water. This morning mouth sore. Gums spongy. Take Manganese for it according to [Dr.] Rudolph's advice."

He died 34 days later on May 13, after going to Farmington to bring home a new horse. The trip was too much. Upon arriving home he suffered a hemorrhage. [Which I feel confident was a cerebral hemorrhage.]

The Michigan Christian Advocate reported that "he left behind, aside from his family, a young woman who, had he lived, would have been his wife. Unfortunately he hid her name in anonymity." A female's initials are recorded in his diary, and these could prove a clue to her identity.

In the beginning the Collins Family Cemetery was also known as the Collins Plains Cemetery, which is probably the more appropriate name. Most of the burials are of Collinses, but there are a number of friends and extended family buried there as well. There is an early transcript of the cemetery, but many of these recorded names have no remnants of a headstone. We have also learned that some of the people on the transcript were not actually buried here at all, but were certainly remembered with headstones at one time.

Some people who made tremendous improvements to this long uncared for sacred spot accidently resulted in its name being erroneously changed to the "Judson Collins Memorial Cemetery" on Find-A-Grave. This irony is so contrary to Judson's desire that he would be "little and unknown behind the cross."

The Collins Family Cemetery is located on one of the most beautiful pieces of property anyone could ever expect to see.