Biography of CHENEY PERSON of Manchester NH --------------------------- Information located at http://www.nh.searchroots.com/Manchester On a web site about GENEALOGY AND HISTORY OF MANCHESTER NEW HAMPSHIRE TRANSCRIBED BY JANICE BROWN Please see the web site for my email contact. ---------------------------------- The original source of this information is in the public domain, however use of this text file, other than for personal use, is restricted without written permission from the transcriber (who has edited, compiled and added new copyrighted text to same). ======================================================== SOURCE: History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Philadelphia: J.W. Lewis & Co., 1885 ------------------- THE P.C. CHENEY PAPER COMPANY carries on an extensive business in the manufacturing of manilla and card-board paper in its mills at Amoskeag. This company also does a large business in waste of all kinds, and has a large trade in paper manufactured elsewhere. It has pulp-mills at Goffstown and Peterborough. *** page 83-84 PERSON C. CHENEY *** The Cheney Genealogy is traced from England to Roxbury (Boston Highlands), Mass., and from Roxbury to Newburyport, some of the family being there as early as 1680. Deacon Elias Cheney, born in Old Newbury, February 20, 1741, settled quite early in life in Thornton, N.H. and died there in 1805, at the age of eighty-six. Deacon Elias Cheney, son of the above, and father of Deacon Moses Cheney, also lived and died in Thornton. The latter died in Ashland (formerly Holderness) in 1875. Person Colby Cheney, was the son of Deacon Moses and Abigail (Morrison) Cheney, who were types of the God-fearing, God-serving, clear-headed and strong-bodied men and women of the earlier days. Their intelligence, industry and integrity won the respect of all with whom they ever had acquaintance. THey taught their children (five sons and six daughters) by precept and example, how to succeed in broader fields, and gave them as an inheritance, in the place of great wealth, good sense, true hearts and willing hands. Of the sons, Rev. Oren B. Cheney (founder and president of Bates College, Lewiston, me.) is the oldest. THe second son if Moses Cheney, a retired paper manufacturer, now living in Henniker NH. THe third is the late Charles G. Cheney, a graduate of Dartmouth, class of '48, who read law with Nesmith & Pike, of Franklin, and settled in Peterborough, dying in 1862. The fifth is Elias H. Cheney, proprietor of the "Lebanon Free Press," and at the present time a State Senator. The subject of this paper is the fourth son. He was born in Holderness (now Ashland) February 25, 1828. In 1835 his father, one of the pioneers in the paper-making industry of New Hampshire, sold his mill in Holderness and moved to Peterborough, where he, in company with the late A.P. Morrison, his brother-in-law, purchased a small mill. In this mill, in the schools of Peterborough, in Hancock Academy and in Parsonfield (Me) Seminary (then taught by his oldest brother) he received the education and training which have enabled him to reach the prominent positions he has occupied in business, political and social life. Early learning paper-making in all its deatils, at the age of seventeen he was placed in charge of the establishment by those who had purchased it of his father, who at this time returned to Holderness. In this position he succeeded so well that in eight years, in company with two other gentlemen, he built another mill, of which, at a later day, he became sole proprietor. He continued to make paper at Peterborough, gradually enlarging his business and engaging to some extent in other enterprises, until 1866, when he formed a partnership with Thomas L. Thorpe, of Manchester, for the sale of paper stock and the manufacture of paper, the mills of the company being located in Amoskeag, in Manchester and at Goffstown. This partnership was succeeded by one of which Mr. Cheney, Dr. E.M. Tubbs and Hon. Ira Cross were members, and upon the death of Dr. Tubbs, in 1878, by the P.C. Cheney Company, which now owns and operates the pulp-mills at Peterborough and Goffstown, the pulp and paper-mill at Amoskeag, and extensive timber tracts in the town of Washington. The mills of the company produce seven tons of paper daily, and give employment to one hundred and fifty operatives. Of this company Mr. Cheney, who was its creator and who owns most of its stock, is treasurer and manager. It is one of the largest, best- known, most reliable and popular business concerns of the State. Its name is everywhere synonymous with honesty, honor and solvency. The qualities which have enable Mr. Cheney to build up this great industry hold it steady in hand and keep it strong and growing in the worst of panics, as well as in good times, characterize him in all the relations of life, and make him a controlling power wherever good advice is wanted and hard work is to be done. These same qualities made him a leader in the Republican party in its early days, and they have kept him among the few to whom it always looks for help when wise councils and judicious management are required to insure success. In 1853 he represented Peterborough in the Legislature. In 1861-62 his time and money were freely and zealously spent to make for New Hampshire the record which is her greatest glory. In 1862 he offered his services to the government, and was assigned to duty as quartermaster of the Thirteenth Regiment. Exposure and overwork in the Fredericksburg campaign brought on a long and dangerous illness, from which his friends did not expect him to rally. The nursing of a devoted wife, however, brought him back to life, and after a long period of suffering, to health and strength, but not until the cuase of the Union was won and the war was over. In 1864 he was elected railroad commissioner and served three years. When he removed to Manchester, in 1867, the people of that city gave him a hearty welcome. In 1871 the Republicans, being then out of power in city and State, insisted on his accepting a mayoralty nomination, and, finally consenting, he was elected mayor by a large majority, his election paving the way for the redemption of the State the next spring. Mr. Cheney declined a renomination for mayor in 1872. In 1875 the Republican State Convention met under most discouraging circumstances. Their opponents had carried the State the year before, and had entrenched themselves in power by ever device known to political cunning, audacity and determination. Many Republicans were of the opinion that it was useless to try to elect a State ticket, and all of them felt that it was only with a leader of great resources and dauntless courage that they had even a fighting chance. Mr. Cheney being nominated as such a leader, with great reluctance accepted the nomination. How wisely the convention judged was shown by the result, which was the defeat of the Democratic candidate for Governor and the election of a Republican Senate and House. There being no election of Governor by the people, Mr. Cheney was chosen by the Legislature. The next year he was nominated and re-elected by a handsome majority of the popular vote. In the long line of executives, the State has had none who discharged the duties of the office more faithfully, with better judgement or more to the satisfaction of all classes, and he retired universally esteemed. He has since devoted himself to his private business, declining further political preferment. He is always ready and willing, however, to render any service which may contribute to the success of the party in whose principles he thoroughly believes. Mr. Cheney is a Unitarian whose faith is reflected in his works. He is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the order of Odd-Fellows. He married, in 1850, Miss S. Anna Moore, who died January 8, 1858, leaving no children. In June, 1859, he married Mrs. Sarah White Keith, to whose devotion, grace, and accomplishments he owes much of his success and happiness in his busy life. He has one child, Agnes Anna Cheney, born October 22, 1869, who is now at school in Washington. He resides in an elegant home in Manchester, in which a hearty and refined hospitality greets every visitor, and from which there goes out to every good cause that his neighbors and fellow-townsmen are engaged in, generous and unostentatious help. ----------------------------------- SOURCE: Manchester, A Brief Record of its Past and A Picture of Its Present, including an account of is settlement and its growth as town and city; a history of its schools, churches, societies, banks, post-offices, newspapers and manufactures; a description of its government, police and fire department, public buildings, library, water-works, cemeteries, streets, streams, railways and bridges; a complete list of the selectmen, moderators and clerks of the town and members of the councils, marshals and engineers of the city, with the state of the cote for mayor at each election; the story of its part in the war of the rebellion with a complete list of its soldiers who went ot the war; and sketches of its representative citizens; Manchester N.H.; John B. Clark; 1875 ------------------- page 387 **** THE HON. P.C. CHENEY *** Person Colby Cheney was born in Holderness NH now Ashland, February 25, 1828. He is the son of Moses and Abigail (Morrison) Cheney and was one of a family of eleven, five sons and six daughters. Of his three surviving brothers, one, Dr. O.B. Cheney, is the president of Bates College at Lewiston, ME; another, E.H. Cheney is the editor and proprietor of the Granite State Free Press at Lebanon NH; and the third, Moses CHeney Jr., was a manufacturer of paper at Henniker, but has retired from business. The five sisters now living are Sarah B., wife of the Rev. S.D. Abbott of Needham, Mass; Abby M., wife of George Washburn of Ashland NH; Ruth E., wife of Joseph W. Lord of Wollaston, Mass.; Marcia A., wife of J. P.F. Smith of Meredith; Hattie O., wife of Dr. C.F. Bonney of Manchester. When he was seven years of age, his father, a manufacturer of paper at Holderness, moved with his family to Peterborough and established himself anew. His youth, except what time he occupied in acquiring an education in the academies of Peterborough and Hancock in this state and at Parsonfield, Maine, was spent in the paper-mill, and when his father sold his business in Peterborough to A.P. Morrison and returned to Holderness, he remained as manager of the mill. In partnership with others he built a paper-mill and established himself in business in Peterborough in 1853, and, soon buying the interest of his associates, continued the business in his own name. In August 1862, he went from Peterborough to take part in the War of the Rebellion, having been appointed quartermaster of the Thirteenth regiment. Exposure and overwork in the campaign before Fredericksburg brought on a sickness which sent him home and forbade his return to the service, and he was discharged in August, 1863. In 1866 he removed to Manchester and associated himself with Thomas L. Thorpe as a dealer in paper stock and also as a manufacturer of paper at Goffstown. In 1868 E.M. Tubbs & Company, of which firm Mr. Cheney had become a member three years before, bought out Mr. Thorpe's interest and the business was continued under the name of P.C. Cheney & Company. After the burning of their mill at Goffstown in 1871, they rebuilt the old mill at Amoskeag Village and resumed business there, having since built a new mill at Goffstown. The firm has also, till recently, had an interest in paper-mills at Henniker and West Henniker, this state. Mr. Cheney was elected a representative from Peterborough in 1853 and 1854, was chosen railroad commissioner in 1864 and mayor of Manchester in 1871. He could have been re-elected mayor the next year had he not positively refused a re-nomination. He was a director of the Peterborough Bank when he came to Manchester and has been president of the People's Savings Bank since its organization in 1874. He married May 22, 1850, Miss S. Anna Moore, who died January 8, 1858, leaving no children. He married June 29, 1859, Mrs. Sarah W. Keith, daughter of Jonathan White, formerly of Lowell, Mass., by whom he has had one daughter, Agnes Annie Cheney. He was nominated by the Republican party for governor in 1875 and wherever he was known obtained more than the usual party vote, but there was no choice by the people. He will undoubtedly be elected governor in June by the legislature. Mr. Cheney is a man of clear and vigorous insight, of an earnest and strongly sympathetic nature, generous, patriotic, and high-minded. Possessing great administrative capacity, he has been a very successful man of business. Untiring in his efforts for the good of others, he cares more for his friends than himself, and in consequence, when an opportunity is afford them to do him a favor, he meets with the most cordial support. Interested in all movements for the public good, he is very popular in whatever capacity he appears before the people. (end)