Oren B. Cheney
Encyclopedia
Oren Burbank Cheney was the founder of Bates College
Bates College
Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...

, an abolitionist, and a Free Will Baptist clergyman.

Early life

He was born in Holderness, New Hampshire
Holderness, New Hampshire
Holderness is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,108 at the 2010 census. An agricultural and resort area, Holderness is home to the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center and is located on Squam Lake...

, to prominent abolitionist parents, Abigail and Moses Cheney
Moses Cheney
Moses Cheney was an abolitionist, printer and legislator from New Hampshire.Cheney was born in 1793 in Thornton, New Hampshire. Cheney entered the paper printing business in Holderness . On June 23, 1816 he married Abigail Cheney...

. Oren Cheney was educated at the Parsonsfield Seminary
Parsonsfield Seminary
Parsonsfield Seminary, which operated from 1832-1949, was a well-known Free Will Baptist school in North Parsonsfield, Maine, in the United States. Also known as the North Parsonsfield Seminary, its preserved campus of four buildings is located on State Route 160.-History:In 1832 Rev. John Buzzell...

 (a Free Will Baptist
Free Will Baptist Church
Free Will Baptist is a denomination of churches that share a common history, name, and an acceptance of the Arminian theology of free grace, free salvation, and free will. Free Will Baptists share similar soteriological views with General Baptists, Separate Baptists and some United Baptists...

 school), Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

, and Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

, graduating with the Class of 1839. Cheney had transferred from Brown to Dartmouth because he felt Dartmouth was more tolerant of abolitionism. Cheney later attended the Free Will Baptist Bible School in Whitestown, New York
Whitestown, New York
Whitestown is a town in Oneida County, New York, USA. The population was 18,635 at the 2000 census. The name is derived from Judge Hugh White, an early settler.The Town of Whitestown is immediately west of Utica, New York...

 (later called Cobb Divinity School
Cobb Divinity School
Cobb Divinity School, founded in 1840, was a Free Will Baptist graduate school affiliated with several Free Baptist institutions throughout its history...

).

Abolitionism and Temperance

Influenced particularly by his mother, Cheney developed core beliefs in the causes of abolitionism
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...

 and temperance
Temperance movement
A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...

, and these were unswerving values throughout his life as an abolitionist, teacher, Freewill Baptist minister, state legislator, editor of The Morning Star
The Morning Star (19th century U.S. newspaper)
The Morning Star was a weekly newspaper owned and published by Freewill Baptists in 19th century New England, which campaigned vigorously for the abolition of slavery long before such a political stance was widely considered to be respectable in America....

abolitionist paper and founder and president of Bates College
Bates College
Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...

. Cheney's father, Moses Cheney
Moses Cheney
Moses Cheney was an abolitionist, printer and legislator from New Hampshire.Cheney was born in 1793 in Thornton, New Hampshire. Cheney entered the paper printing business in Holderness . On June 23, 1816 he married Abigail Cheney...

, was the original printer for The Morning Star newspaper, and Moses Cheney was a friend of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...

. Cheney's brother, Person C. Cheney was a U.S. Senator from New Hampshire. Oren Cheney worked at Parsonsfield Seminary
Parsonsfield Seminary
Parsonsfield Seminary, which operated from 1832-1949, was a well-known Free Will Baptist school in North Parsonsfield, Maine, in the United States. Also known as the North Parsonsfield Seminary, its preserved campus of four buildings is located on State Route 160.-History:In 1832 Rev. John Buzzell...

, a stop on the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...

 for several years, and he founded the Lebanon Academy in Lebanon, Maine in 1850. In 1851 Cheney was elected to the Maine House of Representatives
Maine House of Representatives
The Maine House of Representatives is the lower house of the Maine Legislature. The House consists of 151 members representing an equal amount of districts across the state. Each voting member of the House represents around 8,450 citizens of the state...

 as a Free Soil Party
Free Soil Party
The Free Soil Party was a short-lived political party in the United States active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections, and in some state elections. It was a third party and a single-issue party that largely appealed to and drew its greatest strength from New York State. The party leadership...

 candidate and was a strong supporter of the Maine law
Maine law
The Maine law, passed in 1851 in Maine, was one of the first statutory implementations of the developing temperance movement in the United States.-History:Temperance activist Neal Dow helped craft this law...

 (in favor of prohibition).

Founder and President of Bates College

In 1855, Cheney founded the Maine State Seminary, the school that would become Bates College
Bates College
Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...

 and served as president until 1894. The school reflected his personal values: it was open to all students regardless of race, gender, wealth or religion. In 1863, Cheney petitioned the Maine Legislature for a change in the charter to permit a collegiate course of study. He changed the school's name to Bates College
Bates College
Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...

 in honor of Benjamin E. Bates
Benjamin E. Bates
Benjamin Edward Bates was a New England industrialist and philanthropist, who was the namesake and a founder of Bates College and the Bates Mill in Lewiston, Maine.-Biography:...

, the industrialist and philanthropist who made substantial early gifts to Cheney's school. Cheney amended the charter to Bates in 1891 requiring that Bates' president and a majority of the trustees were members of the Free Will Baptist denomination. However after he retired this amendment was revoked in 1907 at the request of Chase and the Board. In 1907 the legislature amended the college's charter removing the requirement for the President and majority of the trustees to be Free Will Baptists, allowing the school to qualify for Carnegie Foundation
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York, which was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 "to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding," is one of the oldest, largest and most influential of American foundations...

 funding for professor pensions.

Founding other institutions

Cheney also played a major role in founding several other Free Baptist institutions such as Storer College
Storer College
Storer College was a historically black college located in Harpers Ferry in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It operated from 1865 until 1955.-Storer School:...

, a school for freed slaves in West Virginia founded in 1867, and the Maine Central Institute
Maine Central Institute
The Maine Central Institute , is an independent high school, founded in 1866, located in Pittsfield, Maine, in the United States. The school enrolls approximately 500 students. MCI is a nonsectarian institution. The school has both boarding students and day students.-History:The Maine Central...

 (MCI), founded in 1866. Cheney was also a founder and the first president of the Free Will Baptist, Ocean Park, Maine
Ocean Park, Maine
Ocean Park is an unincorporated community in the town of Old Orchard Beach in York County, Maine, United States...

, a seaside retreat on Old Orchard Beach.

Retirement

Cheney served as Bates' president for 39 years, retiring at age 79 in 1894. Cheney died in 1903 and was buried in Riverside Cemetery
Riverside Cemetery (Lewiston, Maine)
Riverside Cemetery is a cemetery in Lewiston, Maine. The cemetery is located on the bank of the Androscoggin River which flows through Lewiston. In August 2010, the cemetery was heavily vandalized, with many headstones knocked over and some destroyed....

 in Lewiston
Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...

. In 1907 his third wife, Emeline, wrote a biography of his life using his diaries and autobiographical articles he published in the Morning Star. Cheney's house became part of the Bates campus and is used as a dormitory.

External links

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