Ferdinand A. Collins was born around 1835 in Brooklyn, New York. He married Bedelia Conklin, and they had at least six children: Clementine, born around 1858; Eugenie, born around 1860; Alonzo, born around 1862; Lucy, born around 1865; Frank, born around 1871; and Sara, born around 1874. They lived in Brooklyn until the 1860s, when they moved to Binghamton, New York. He worked as a railroad brakeman, and by 1870, the family owned $1,500 of real estate. His wife died on December 31, 1898. He remained in Binghamton with his children, and he died there on February 12, 1907. According to a local reporter, he “dropped dead at about 6 o’clock this morning on Oak street while on his way to work.”

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