Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/200

 CHENEY.

CHENEY.

the northern stage route. He went into basi- ness for himself in 1842 and organized, with Nathaniel White and William Walker, Chenej- & Co. 's Express, running between Boston and Montreal. This venture was highly successful. Shorth' after this another line was established, which was purchased by Mr. Cheney in 1852. He continued to buy out all competing lines until he formed the United States and Canada express company. This name was retained for more than thirty-five years, when it was merged into the American express company, of which he was made treasurer. He also held large inter- ests in other express and railroad companies. At his death his property was estimated at nine million dollars, about seventy-five thousand dol- lars of which he bequeathed to various charities. He died in Wellesley, Mass. , June 23, 1895.

CHENEY, Charles, manufacturer, was born in what was then called East Hartford Woods, Conn., in 1804; son of George and Electa (Wood- bridge) Cheney. He established himself in busi- ness in Providence, R. I., before he had attained his majority, and there remained until 1837, when he removed to Ohio, and engaged in farm- ing until 1847. He then joined his brothers in the manufacture of silk at South Manchester and Hartford, Conn. He was an abolitionist, and served in the state legislature. He died at South Manchester, Conn., June 20, 1874.

CHENEY, Charles Edward, clergjman, was born in Canandaigua. N.Y., Feb. 12, 1836; son of Dr. E. W. Cheney. He was graduated from Ho- bart college in 1857 and from theP.E. theological seminary of Virginia, in 1859. He was ordained as a priest of the Protestant Episcopal church and Avas assistant minister of St. Luke's church, Rochester, N. Y., then temporarily in charge of St. Paul's church, Havana, N. Y., and after 1860 of Christ church, Chicago. While rector of this church he was cited before an ecclesi- astical tribune, because of his refusal to use the word regenerate in the baptismal offices, at the instance of his diocesan. Bishop White- house. Mr. Cheney was found guilty and sus- pended from his sacerdotal functions; refusing to obey the order of the court, he was tried for contumacy, and on this charge was deposed from the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal church. He affiliated with George David Cum- mins, assistant bishop of Kentucky, and others, in the organization of the Reformed Episcopal church. His congregation followed him into the new organization and he remained rector of Christ church. He was elected missionary bishop of the northwest and consecrated Dec. 14, 1873. In 1876 he was made bishop in charge of the synod of Chicaga On Sunday, March 14, 1897, Bishop Cheney completed his 37th year as rector

of Christ church ; tliat being the longest pastorate in the ecclesiastical history of Chicago. He pub- lished several volumes of sermons, notabh- : Tlie Evangelical Ideal of a Visible Church (1874), A Woj'd to Old-Fashioned Episcopalians (1878) ; The Prayer tcJiich God Denied, and other Sei'- mons (1880), and the Enlistment of the Christian Soldier (1893).

CHENEY, Ednah Dow, author, was born in Boston, Mass., June 27, 1824; daughter of Sar- gent Smith and Ednah (Parker) Littlehale. She was educated at private schools, and was a mem- ber of the classes held by Margaret Fuller, 1830-'40. She participated in the institution of the school of design in 1851, and Avas its secre- tarj', 1851-'54. She was married in 1853 to Seth Wells Cheney, the artist. In 1859 she was instru- mental in founding a hospital in connection with the woman's medical school, and in 1862 became secretary of the New England hospital. In 1863 she was secretary of the teachers' committee of the Freedmen's aid society and held the same office on the committee to aid colored regiments. For several years she was actively interested in the education of the colored soldiers and in the colored schools of the south. She attended the Freedmen's conventions held in Ne^v York city in 1865 and in Baltimore in 1866. She was one of the founders of the New England woman's club, and became its A-ice-president in 1868. She assisted in founding a horticultural school for women in 1869, and lectured on agriculture before the Massachusetts horticultural society in 1871. In 1879 she gave a course of ten lec- tures on art before the Concord school of philosophy; in this year also she was elected vice-president of the Massachusetts woman suffrage association, of which she afterwards became president, and in 1887 was elected president of the hospital she liad been instru- mental in founding in 1859. Mrs. Cheney was a delegate to the woman's council held in Washington, D. C, and in 1890 was pres- ent at the Lake Mohonk negro conference. She contributed voluminously to numerous periodicals, and publislied in book form: Hand- book of American History (1866) ; Faithful to the Light (1870) ; Sally Williams (1872) ; Child of the Tide (1874) ; Life of Dr. Susan Dimock (1875) ; Religion as a Social Force (1875) ; Memoir of Seth Wells Cheney, Glean- ings in the Fields of Art (1881) ; Selected Poems from Michelangelo Bnonarotti (1885) ; A Story of the Olden Time (1890) ; Life of Daniel Ranch (1893). She also edited a col- lection of poems by D. Wasson (1887) ; those of Harriet Sewall (1889), and Louisa M. Alcott : Her Life, Letters, and Journal (1889 ; 2d ed., 1893).