Burleigh, Celia C. (1826–1875)

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Burleigh, Celia C. (1826–1875)

American Unitarian minister and women's rights activist. Born at Sept 18, 1826, Cazenovia, NY; died July 25, 1875, in Syracuse, NY; m. C.B. Kellum, 1844 (div.); m. Charles Chauncey Burr, 1851 (div.); m. William Henry Burleigh, 1865 (died Mar 1871).

Writer, editor, and activist on behalf of a number of reform movements, was primarily concerned with women's rights, including woman's suffrage, divorce reform, and dress reform; became the 1st woman to be ordained as a minister in the Unitarian Church (Oct 5, 1871), at a ceremony in Brooklyn, CT, which was officiated by Julia Ward Howe, among others; served as minister of the First Ecclesiastical Society of Brooklyn, CT; resigned due to breast cancer (1873).