In 1850 he was married to Miss S. Anna Moore, who died January 8, 1858,
leaving no children. He married, June 29, 1859, Mrs. Sarah White Keith,
daughter of Jonathan White, formerly of Lowell, Mass., one of the
earliest of Lowell's manufacturers, by whom he has one daughter, Agnes
Annie Cheney, born October 22, 1869. His domestic life is singularly
happy and charming. His residence, No. 136 Lowell street, is a home of
modest elegance, of courtly hospitality, and the center of a refined
circle. It is not too much to say that to the affectionate sympathy, the
grace, and fine social tact of his accomplished wife, Gov. Cheney owes
not only the enjoyments of a delightful home, but much of the success
and popularity of his career.
The bare outlines of Gov. Cheney's life, as above given, convey but a
faint impression of the essential quality of the man, and his importance
as a factor in the social, business, and political life of his day and
generation. It remains to be said that in Manchester his name is the
synonym for liberality, public spirit, a generous and helpful charity,
and a philanthropy, which, though unobtrusive, loses no opportunity to
exert itself for the relief of distress and the elevation of society at
large. Of a sympathetic nature, he cares more for others than himself,
and no deserving person or worthy object ever solicits his aid in vain.
He is prominent in every movement for the public good, and never spares
himself, nor grudges the means which his business sagacity, energy and
enterprise have gained for him, when work is to be done for a good
cause, or help is needed for anybody in poverty or distress.
Mr. Cheney is still in the prime of life, and his useful service, his
honorable and upright character, his high and unselfish aims, have made
him a power in the state. A brave, true, and honest man, a sincere and
warm-hearted friend, of positive convictions, of unflinching devotion to
principle, and fitted for any station, he is obviously in the line of
succession to still higher honors than have been accorded him. It goes
without saying that such a man has hosts of friends; and certain it is
that he is second to no man in New Hampshire in those elements of
popular strength and confidence which commend men to public service.
An earlier biographer, from whose sketch most of this is derived,
appropriately closes his delineation of him with the remark, that "Mr.
Cheney may yet be drawn from the seclusion of private life, and the
unremitting toil of active business, to lend his aid to the councils of
a nation."
HON. PHINEHAS ADAMS.
BY ARTHUR P. DODGE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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