| Oren B. Cheney | |
|---|---|
| President of Bates College | |
| Term | 1855 – 1894 |
| Successor | George Colby Chase |
| Born | December 10, 1816 Holderness, New Hampshire |
| Died | December 22, 1903 (aged 87) Lewiston, Maine |
Oren Burbank Cheney (December 10, 1816 – December 22, 1903)[1] was the founder of Bates College, an abolitionist, and a Free Will Baptist clergyman.
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He was born in Holderness, New Hampshire, to prominent abolitionist parents, Abigail and Moses Cheney. Oren Cheney was educated at the Parsonsfield Seminary (a Free Will Baptist school), Brown University, and Dartmouth College, 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 (later called Cobb Divinity School).
Influenced particularly by his mother, Cheney developed core beliefs in the causes of abolitionism and temperance, and these were unswerving values throughout his life as an abolitionist, teacher, Freewill Baptist minister, state legislator, editor of The Morning Star abolitionist paper and founder and president of Bates College. Cheney's father, Moses Cheney, was the original printer for The Morning Star newspaper, and Moses Cheney was a friend of Frederick Douglass. Cheney's brother, Person C. Cheney was a U.S. Senator from New Hampshire. Oren Cheney worked at Parsonsfield Seminary, a stop on the Underground Railroad 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 as a Free Soil Party candidate and was a strong supporter of the Maine law (in favor of prohibition).[2]
In 1855, Cheney founded the Maine State Seminary, the school that would become Bates College 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 in honor of Benjamin E. Bates, 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 funding for professor pensions.[3]
Cheney also played a major role in founding several other Free Baptist institutions such as Storer College, a school for freed slaves in West Virginia founded in 1867, and the Maine Central Institute (MCI), founded in 1866. Cheney was also a founder and the first president of the Free Will Baptist, Ocean Park, Maine, a seaside retreat on Old Orchard Beach.
Cheney served as Bates' president for 39 years, retiring at age 79 in 1894. Cheney died in 1903 and was buried in Riverside Cemetery in Lewiston. 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.
| Preceded by none |
President of Bates College 1855-1894 |
Succeeded by George Colby Chase |