Woman of the Century/Armilla Amanda Cheney

CHENEY, Mrs. Armilla Amanda, treasurer National Relief Corps, born in Windham, Ohio, 27th August, 1845, of Massachusetts and Vermont parentage. Her maiden name was Perkins. She is a lineal descendant of John Perkins, who, over two-hundred-fifty years ago, by strategy, saved the little Puritan colony of Ipswich, Mass., from the Indians. Left fatherless at an early age, without brothers or sisters, and with a mother in feeble health, more than ordinary cares and responsibilities came to her in her younger days. Her whole life has been characterized by the ability to do whatsoever her hands found to do. She received a liberal education and was thereby qualified for the useful and responsible positions she has held. She was in school when the war-cry rang out at the firing on Fort Sumter, and became ARMILLA AMANDA CHENEY. an earnest worker in the home labors that formed so large a part of the daily task of Northern women for alleviating the sufferings of the Boys in Blue. She became the wife of Capt. James W. Cheney, a native of Massachusetts, in May, 1868. Moving to Detroit, Midi., in the fall of 1870, where she still resides, she identified herself with one of the prominent churches, and engaged in its work and that of its Sabbath-school, having in charge the infant department for several years. She became a member of Fairbanks Woman's Relief Corps, of Detroit, early in its organization, was appointed department secretary of that order soon after, and in 1887 accepted the office of secretary of the national organization. So faithfully and conscientiously were her duties performed that she won the love and esteem of the order throughout the country, and in Milwaukee, Wis., in 1889, was elected national treasurer and was unanimously reelected at the succeeding national conventions, held in Boston, Mass., in 1890. and in Detroit, Mich., in 1891.