n6 CHENEY. CHENEY. His second marriage was with Mrs. So- phronia W. Thompson, in Orange, January iS, 1886. Mrs. Thompson was the daughter of Samuel and Rhoda (Huntress) Carll. They have one child, Fannie S. Chase, now living, and Arria M. Chase, who died while an infant. Mr. Chase has held various town offices ; has been town clerk for twenty-two years, and now holds the office, and has been successful in his general practice. He is regarded as a useful local counselor and office lawyer, critical in adjustment and preparation of cases, and has the reputa- tion, by his conscientious advice, of saving his clients long, expensive and often use- less litigation. CHENEY, Benjamin Pierce, was bom in Hillsborough, Hillsborough county, N. H., August 12, 1815. His great-grand- father, Deacon Tristram Cheney, was one of the early settlers of Antrim, N. H., hav- ing been born in Dedham, moved to Fram- ingham, from there to Sudbury, and thence to Rindge, N. H., and subsequently to Antrim, where he located his homestead near Cork Bridge on what is known as the Diamond Dodge Place, where a number of children were born unto him. One of these, Elias, grandfather of Benjamin P., married first Miss Blanchard of West Deering, N. H., and subsequently Miss Deborah Win- chester of Hillsborough. Unto him were born nine children, of whom Jesse, the father of Benjamin P., was one. He served four years in the revolutionary war, two years for himself, one for his father, and one for his brother. Jesse mar- ried Miss Alice Steele of Antrim, to whom six children were born : William, who died in infancy, Benjamin Pierce, James, Jesse, Gilman, and John. Mr. Cheney received his first education in the common schools, which he left at a very early age, the embarrassed circum- stances of his father rendering it necessary for him to exert himself for his own and the family's support. At the age of ten he was employed in his father's black- smith shop, and before he was twelve years of age was employed in a tavern and store in Francistown. Indoor life proved detri- mental to his health, and he purchased his time of his father, and at the age of sixteen drove a stage from Nashua to Exeter, N. H.; at seventeen, from Keene to Nashua, a distance of fifty miles a day, for six con- secutive years. At twenty-three he was sent to Boston, No. n Elm Street, to act as agent for the various lines radiating from Nashua and the Powell & Nashua Railroad. At twenty- seven, he with William Walker and Nathan- iel White, started an express from Boston to Montreal, which he continued, most of BENJAMIN P CHENEY. the time under his own name, for nearly thirty-seven years, when it became merged into the American Express Company, he retaining a large interest in the company and remaining an officer until the present day. During this time Mr. Cheney became interested in the " Overland Mail " to San Francisco, and in Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Ex- press, and as a result he became one of the pioneers in the Northern Pacific and other western railroads. Mr. Cheney was married June 6, 1865, to Elizabeth S., daughter of Asahel Clapp. Three daughters and two sons are the fruit of this marriage. On the 17th of June, 1886, he presented to his native state, a bronze statue of Daniel Webster, costing some twelve thou- sand dollars. The statue was placed in the State House park in Concord, N. H. The pedestal is of the finest Concord granite, and was designed by Thomas Ball and exe- cuted by him at Florence, the casting being made at Munich. Mr. Cheney's residence is Boston, but he spends his summers on his Wellesley farm.
