Emily Codman was born in Ackworth, New Hampshire on April 10, 1826.  She lived most of her earlier life in Ackworth and moved to Massachusetts when she was a young girl.  When Emily was eighteen she moved to Boston where she joined the Brook Farm Association and became a social reformer.  The Brook Farm Association believed in sharing one’s intellectual gifts with those who were less fortunate. 

While in Boston she met her future husband, Charles A. Codman who introduced her to Josiah Warren and the social movement that he built his community, Modern Times on. Modern Times was based on the theory of mutualism a form of socialist economic theory of labor where equal amounts of labor should receive equal pay.

In 1857, Charles A. Codman settled in Modern Times with his first wife, Caroline Ada Blaisdell, after attending a lecture of Stephen Pearl Andrews, a founder of this community.  Later Emily Studley followed Charles to Modern Times and eventually Charles divorced his first wife and married Emily. 

For over twenty-five years, Emily Codman enjoyed entertaining and opened her home to the residents of Modern Times as a place to socialize and meet as a community.    Upon her death on July 2, 1886 she was memorialized by Dr. Edward Newbery, Edward F. Linton and H. B. Brown.  Emily Codman spent her life as a student of famous humanists such as Owen, Fourier, Warren, Andrews, and Comte.  Emily Codman is remembered as a citizen who was loved and respected by the community for her friendship, and eagerness to please others.

         M. Koferl  August 2006