Jump to content

Person Colby Cheney

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Person Colby Cheney
35th Governor of New Hampshire
In office
June 10, 1875 – June 7, 1877
Preceded byJames A. Weston
Succeeded byBenjamin F. Prescott
United States Senator from
New Hampshire
In office
November 24, 1886 – June 14, 1887
Appointed byMoody Currier
Preceded byAustin F. Pike
Succeeded byWilliam E. Chandler
19th Mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire
In office
1872–1872
Preceded byJames A. Weston
Succeeded byCharles H. Bartlett
Member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives
In office
1854
Personal details
BornFebruary 25, 1828
Holderness, New Hampshire (now Ashland)
DiedJune 19, 1901(1901-06-19) (aged 73)
Dover, New Hampshire
Political partyRepublican

Person Colby Cheney (February 25, 1828 – June 19, 1901) was a paper manufacturer, abolitionist and Republican politician from Manchester, New Hampshire. He was the 35th governor of New Hampshire and later represented the state in the United States Senate.

Biography

[edit]

Cheney was born in Holderness (now Ashland) to abolitionists, Abigail and Moses Cheney. Oren Burbank Cheney, the founder of Bates College, was Person Cheney's older brother. Cheney attended academies in Peterborough and Hancock and the Parsonsfield Seminary in Parsonsfield, Maine. He engaged in the manufacture of paper in Peterborough until 1866, and in 1854 was a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives.

During the Civil War he was first lieutenant and regimental quartermaster in the Thirteenth Regiment of the New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry (1862–1863). He was state railroad commissioner from 1864 to 1867. He moved to Manchester in 1867, and engaged in business as a dealer in paper stock and continued the manufacture of paper at Goffstown.

Person Colby Cheney circa 1875

Political career

[edit]

He also engaged in agricultural pursuits until being elected mayor of Manchester in 1871. He was Governor of New Hampshire from 1875 to 1877. Cheney was appointed as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Austin F. Pike, and served from November 24, 1886, to June 14, 1887, when a successor was elected and qualified. He was not a candidate for election to fill the vacancy and resumed his former manufacturing pursuits.

Cheney served as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Switzerland in 1892–1893. He died in Dover, New Hampshire in 1901 and is buried in the Pine Grove Cemetery at Manchester.

[edit]
  • United States Congress. "Person Colby Cheney (id: C000343)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved February 14, 2008.
  • Cheney at New Hampshire's Division of Historic Resources
  • Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men: Person Colby Cheney
Party political offices
Preceded by
Luther McCutchins
Republican nominee for Governor of New Hampshire
1875, 1876
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire
1872–1872
Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of New Hampshire
1875–1877
Succeeded by
U.S. Senate
Preceded by U.S. senator (Class 2) from New Hampshire
1886–1887
Served alongside: Henry W. Blair
Succeeded by