The story of the life and work of Oren B. Cheney, founder and first president of Bates college

Contents

CHAPTER

I Ancestry ; Boyhood . . . i

II Conditions in Country and Church n

II

When Oren was born, James Madison was nearing the close of his second term as President. But one year had passed since the close of the war of 1812-1815. The interpretation of the provisions of the National Constitution was still uncertain and under discussion. Business was in an unsettled condition. Slaveships were surreptitiously, although illegally, unloading their cargoes at southern ports. Rum was sold by grocers as freely as molasses. Steam was just beginning to be applied to navigation and land travel. Any point beyond the New England and the Atlantic states was "out west." But little wheat was raised. In Oren's boyhood, the family occasionally enjoyed the luxury of flour bread and doughnuts. Generally the food was of corn meal or rye and very simple.

CHURCH

Oren B. Cheney was never a sectarian in its narrow sense, yet he was always so true to the people of his choice, the Free-Will — afterward Free — Baptists, that a brief history of their origin and extension seems necessary as a setting to the events of his life.

In 1770, as a result of the preaching of Whitefield, a resident of New Castle, a small island in Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire, Benjamin

Randall, at the age of twenty-one, became an active Christian. After a careful study of the Bible, during several years, he found that he could not agree fully with the teaching of any of the leading denominations. Believing it to be his duty to preach, he presented the truth as he understood the bible to teach it, making prominent free salvation for all who believe, free Communion for all who love our Lord Jesus Christ, and large freedom for the individual conscience.

The doctrines of John Calvin were the almost constant theme of a majority of the pulpits of New England in those days ; and the creeds had so much of the "straight-jacket" character that expression of independent opinions was rare. When, therefore, Randall began to present the truth as he discerned it, it was in such contrast to the general belief of his time, that he was at once denounced as a fanatic and heretic. Persecution followed. Mobs gathered around his meeting places ; tar and feathers were prepared for him, and he narrowly escaped being killed by brickbats. There followed much searching of the Scriptures, to know if he were right or wrong, with the result that many accepted his teachings. They were nicknamed " Freewillers."

In 1779, Randall was called before a Baptist meeting, to answer for his errors, especially for not preaching the generally accepted doctrine of election. As the result of this and subsequent trials, fellowship was withdrawn from him and from all who accepted his beliefs. Then first these disfellowshipped Christians organized a church of their order at New Durham, New Hampshire, with Benjamin Randall as pastor ; and although Randall never favored the name, they finally permitted themselves to be called Free-Will Baptists. A simple covenant was adopted embodying their belief and based on the Sermon on the Mount. This was in marked distinction from the intricate, elaborate creeds of the day. Thus the Free-Will Baptist denomination had its birth.

For a time, the preaching was mainly by men of the evangelistic type and in country places, where independence of thought was greater than in the cities. The preachers were men of consecrated lives, good native ability and especially gifted as leaders of the common people. The establishment of many country churches followed, and from that day to the present, the principles of this people, through the removal of its representatives from their country homes, have been carried to city churches of different denominations. How much Free-Will Baptists have contributed towards a simpler faith and broader Christian charity will never be fully known until the final summing up of all earthly events.

From the beginning, their great respect for personal convictions in regard to belief and duty has prevented distinctions in race or sex. Their early preachers were accustomed, at the close of their sermons to request any who felt " moved " to do so, to "add a few words." Women, as well as men spoke on such occasions, often very impressively. There were a number of women preachers and evangelists in the denomination during its first quarter century. That these were not of an erratic type is shown by the descriptions given of them.

Of Clarissa H. Danforth, who founded many churches in New England, it is said :

"She was of a good family and well educated. She had extraordinary talent and undoubted piety. Tall in person, dignified in appearance, easy in manners, she had all the elements of a noble woman. As a speaker, her language was ready and simple, her gestures appropriate. Her voice penetrated to the corners of the largest house. She held hundreds with fixed attention, listening by the hour to the claims of her heavenly Master."

David Marks, one of the most successful evangelists of his day, gives much credit to Mrs. Humes, who assisted him, but says she had much to contend with because of the popular prejudice against women as preachers.

When we remember the belief, at this time, in some of the leading denominations, that it was wrong for women to speak even in small social meetings of the church, and that half a century later, Rev. Theodore Cuyler, D.D., was arraigned before his presbytery for allowing Hannah Smiley to give bible readings in his pulpit, the mission of Free Baptists in giving to women the utmost freedom of their convictions will be more highly appreciated.

Without tracing further at present the development of this young denomination, we may note that in 1828, when Oren was twelve years old, it had been organized into seven Yearly Meetings in six different states, with about four hundred churches, most of them in country places ; and that it was admirably adapted, both in its opportunities and needs, to aid in the development of Oren's life of usefulness.

In 1826, we see him, as lay-boy, carefully separating the sheets of paper, that are to contain the first imprint of The Morning Star, in that year founded and thenceforward to be the organ of the Free-Will Baptists. As the printed copy comes back, week after week, we see the boy eagerly listening, while one of the " hands " reads from its pages to the assembled group. In 1827, the date of the First Free-Will Baptist General Conference, it is significant to note the interest with which Oren listens to the reading of the report of the doings of the religious body, over which, many years later, he was repeatedly to preside.

SCHOOL

RELATION OF EARLY FREE-WILL BAPTISTS TO EDUCATION

PARSONSFIELD SEMINARY

FIRST SCHOOL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY

NEW HAMPTON LITERARY INSTITUTION

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

Ill

Oren's early school life consisted of a few terms at a little school kept by his aunt ; a few at the public school ; and a short time in Dr. Dana's private school.

When he was thirteen years old, in using a cornsheller, he cut off the end of his thumb. Then, farewell future paper manufacturer ! In the thrifty Cheney family, there was no time wasted, so while the injured thumb was healing, the boy was sent to New Hampton Institute, five miles away. Of that time Dr. Cheney says, in his reminiscences, " The night before leaving for school, mother came to my room and, kneeling beside my bed, prayed for me. I well remember her advice, in view of the dangers of dawning manhood. No talisman could have guarded me so securely."

In going temporarily to New Hampton, Oren little realized that he had reached a turning point in his life, for as soon as his thumb healed, he returned to the mill. But, while at New Hampton, he was under the influence of Hosea Quinby, a Free-Will Baptist, preparing for college, and also acting as assistant teacher. Quinby was interested in the promising lad and exerted a powerful influence over him not only in school, but later in his home.

RELATION OF EARLY FREE-WILL BAPTISTS TO EDUCATION

It is sometimes said that, at first, Free-Will Baptists were opposed to education. In order to throw light upon their position, let us note that in those days a college education was almost entirely limited to young men who were to be ministers, lawyers or physicians. Free-Will Baptists in their first third century may be denominated " a voice," protesting against narrowness in creed, and formality and lack of spiritual power in the pulpit. It seemed to them that the theological teaching in the leading denominational schools was producing a class of " man-made " ministers, lacking in real spiritual force. The fear of having such a ministry led to fear of the causes which they regarded as producing it.

At the same time, Randall, Buzzell and other denominational leaders were men of sound judgment and good common sense, and hence ready to be inspired and led by an educated man of tact, like Quinby. In fact this earnest pioneer found many supporters among both clergy and laity in his work of establishing a Free-Will Baptist school. During his course at Waterville, now Colby College, Quinby judiciously prepared the way. John Buzzell gave his hearty support and he and others raised the money for a seminary building ; so that after Quinby's graduation, in the fall of

1832, he opened a Free-Will Baptist school at Parsonsfield, Maine, known as Parsonsfield Seminary.

Through Quinby's influence, Oren's father was induced to send the boy there, and in September, 1832, we see him riding on a load of Morning Star paper, on its way to Limerick, where the Star was published. The distance to Parsonsfield was forty miles, and the journey required three days.

Of his experience at that time, Dr. Cheney says in his reminiscences : " To my boyish vision the Morning Star was a bright luminary. Now, I was going to see John Buzzell, the editor. The village of North Parsonsfield consisted of a single street, a half-mile in length, lined with neat farmhouses, the seminary building at one end, Elder Buzzell's meeting-house at the other, and about half way between, a store, where dry goods, groceries and books were sold.

" The meeting-house was of typical New England construction, with high pulpit and soundingboard, square, high-backed pews, gallery all around and ' singing seats ' in the gallery facing the pulpit. Dear old house ! Many good men preached a free gospel in it. A mob once surrounded it, because there were in it men and women consulting about giving freedom to the slaves. John Buzzell was an off-hand, earnest, ready speaker. His theme was generally free salvation as opposed to Calvinism. He was a good singer. There were sermons in his songs. His hymn-book was among the earliest Free-Will Baptist publications."

The Parsonsfield school opened with a good attendance in a neighboring school-house, as the Seminary building was not quite completed.

Three or four incidents, connected with the year spent here, throw light upon Oren's developing character. One day his cousin Elizabeth expressed to him chagrin because other students had good meeting-houses in which to worship, while at their home in Holderness, they worshiped in an old school house. Oren replied with much emphasis, " When we go home we will have as good a one as anybody." He kept his word and soon after their return, there was built on his father's farm, over a boulder on which he had often played, the church that has been in use ever since.

Oren began his temperance record even when a boy in school, and to explain this, we must go back a little. In 1830, the first temperance lecturer visited Holderness and gave an address to a large audience. When, at its close he asked for signers to the pledge, Oren's mother and a foolish lad were the only ones who arose. This made Mrs. Cheney a butt for ridicule through the village, but little she cared. She saw a truth. That was enough. Her home was at once cleared of all that could intoxicate. No ministers were afterwards treated to liquors at Deacon Cheney's sideboard.

One day, when Oren was at the grocery, a prominent church member ostentatiously went to a barrel, drew a glass of rum, sweetened and stirred it vigorously, then, as he drank it, told the

boy to go home and tell his mother that

drank a glass of rum.

Oren protested to his mother against going to meeting with such a man, but she replied gently, " Oh, my boy, he is a good man, but he looks at things in a different light from what we do."

Mrs. Cheney was a crusader thirty or more years before the Woman's Temperance Crusade started. Knowing that a temperance measure was to be acted upon at a town meeting, Mrs. Cheney and some other women went with their knitting work to the town hall and, uninvited, sat there knitting, knitting while the measure was discussed.

The men voted by ranging themselves on opposite sides of the room. One man started to go to the side representing the liquor interest, but seeing the eyes of the women upon him, he hastily retreated to the other side. The side of temperance prevailed and the women went home happy.

These early influences help us to see why, at Parsonsfield, Oren was a leader in starting a school temperance society. He was chairman of the committee on constitution. Another member said to him, " We must have some big words in it." "What would you suggest?" was Oren's query. " Well, ' tantamount ' would be good," was the wise reply. Although the big word did not get into the constitution, the society flourished and is believed to be the first school temperance society in the country that prohibited in its pledge fermented as well as distilled liquors.

Oren belonged to a family of good singers and from a child had an excellent voice. At Parsonsfield he felt himself suddenly some inches taller when invited to the "singing seats."

He always remembered with amusement one Sunday's experience. In the gallery, at his right sat a boy with uncommonly red hair. Just behind him a sober looking lad attracted much attention, at an important stage of the sermon, by holding his outstretched palms near the fiery hair, then rubbing them together as in process of warming them. The preacher must have wondered what there was in his sermon that could excite so many smiles in the "choir loft." As fires were not used in meeting-houses in those days, except in footstoves for women, there was a quaint appropriateness in the boy's act.

About this time, the young Free- Will Baptist denomination began to awaken to the duty of foreign missionary work. In 1832, Buzzell, Quinby and others interested held a meeting in the Buzzell meeting-house to inaugurate the work.

Oren heard of it and went, an interested listener to the plans which resulted in the formation of the society of which later he was for many years Recording Secretary and afterward President.

The year spent at Parsonsfield was in many ways a fruitful one in Oren's development. He had in Hosea Quinby not only an excellent teacher, but an inspiration to the best manhood. In being under the ministry of John Buzzell, Benjamin Randall's successor, he came in close relation to the beginnings of the denomination to whose development he afterward contributed so much. But it was inconvenient to be so far from home, and the next year he entered New Hampton Literary Institution, at New Hampton, New Hampshire, which at that time was a Baptist school, and there finished his preparation for college.

Previous impressions as to duty had been maturing and while at New Hampton, fully deciding to give himself to the service of God and his fellow-men, Oren kneeled in a retired pasture, and with sincere prayer and pledge, consecrated his life to Christian service. To the vows then made he was ever true.

THE YOUNG TEACHER

COLLEGE LIFE

BAPTISM

OPPOSITION TO RELIGIOUS SERVICE IN SCHOOL HOUSE

WORK FOR THE INDIANS

SUNDAY SERVICES

"MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE THEM"

IV

During his New Hampton course, in 1834, he taught one term of the Holderness village school. An incident which occurred here showed that Oren already possessed the elements of a firm, brave teacher. One day a drunken father entered the school-room, flourishing an ox goad, and accusing the youthful teacher of punishing his boy, thus throwing the school into a panic. Nothing daunted, Oren took a ruler over his shoulder and marching up to the man, eyed him keenly and soon quieted him. The frightened children then returned to their seats.

At New Hampton, Oren did good work and when he graduated was well fitted for college. Through influences exerted while there, Oren was led in the fall of 1835, to enter Brown University, President Wayland's reputation being an especial inducement.

In going to Brown he took his first car rides, from Lowell to Boston, then from Boston to Providence, thus traveling over two of the three railroads in the country. To the eager hearted lad it seemed the greatest event in his life.

The term spent at Brown was full of opportunities for development, not only in college life, but in city and state. With his love of seeing noted places it did not take Oren long to find the various points of historic interest, prominent among them being the landing place of Roger Williams and his associates.

This was the year when Garrison was mobbed in Boston and the mob-spirit entered Rhode Island. Hearing that a meeting of anti-slavery women was to be broken up, Oren was on hand to observe the exciting scenes. But the spirit of Roger Williams was there also. The mayor dispersed the crowd. Rhode Island's reputation for religious liberty was maintained. But the indignation that thrilled young Cheney as he noted the spirit of the mob made him an out-and-out abolitionist, and from that time he lost no opportunity to do all he could by voice and pen for the emancipation of the slaves.

Hearing that at Dartmouth College anti-slavery sentiments were allowed more freedom of expression than at Brown, influenced also by family and financial considerations, with a letter of recommendation from President Wayland, our young student after one term at Brown, returned to his parents' new home at Peterboro, New Hampshire, and, in the following spring enrolled himself as a student at Dartmouth College.

He soon after accepted an invitation to teach the winter school at Canaan. At just that time this village was the center of anti-slavery interest, for near the district school house there had stood, a few weeks before, a fine Academy ; but news

O. B. Cheney

About 1845 having spread that " niggers " were attending this Academy, some of the townspeople, at night, with their oxen drew the building a mile away and left it in a swamp.

As a curiosity in literature and an illustration of the spirit of the times, we append the following extract from a speech delivered to a crowd that gathered in a Canaan church at the conclusion of this notorious act : '

"The work is done, the object obtained. The contest has been severe but the victory glorious. No sable son of Africa remains to darken our horizen. The abolition monster who ascended out of the bottomless pit is sent headlong to perdition, and the mourners go about the streets. You, gentlemen, who have assisted us in obtaining this glorious victory, in behalf of the inhabitants of this town, I present to you my sincere and hearty thanks for your prompt attention and unexampled exertions in repelling an enemy far more to be dreaded than the pestilence that walketh in darkness and the destruction that wasteth at noonday. May the sun of liberty continue to shine on you with increased splendor and never be obstructed by the sable clouds of Africa ; and should it be your misfortune to be again invaded by a similar foe, we pledge ourselves to unite our exertions with yours in putting down by all lawful means every plot that threatens the subversions of our liberties, or disturbs the public tranquility.

" May that Being that presides over the destinies of Nations reward you a hundred fold in this life, and in the life to come life everlasting."

Dr. Cheney tells this story of his experience in going there :

" A young Baptist minister took me by horse and sleigh to Canaan on Saturday. We arrived at the house of the agent of the school early in the evening. As we sat at the teatable, and afterwards before the fire, the whole story was told by the agent of the bringing of ' niggers ' into town and of the driving them out, with the words added in strong emphasis, ' We will not have an abolitionist teach our school.'

" As my friend left me that evening, I followed him to the door and said, ' What shall I do ? I am an abolitionist. I cannot teach the school here.' 'O,' said he, 'say nothing about it. It will never be known what you are.'

" Taking his advice I began the school. Everything went on in silence and pleasantly for about three weeks. But the silence was on my part. The town was discussing the question, ' On which side is the master ? ' I saw the mistake I had made in listening to the advice given me. I could not endure such a non-committal life, and in a quiet way I let my anti-slavery principles be known. The whole town was thrown into excitement as the news spread. The joy of the abolitionists, few in number, can hardly be told.

The opposition let me alone, and I finished the school term.

" It may be well to add that among the colored students driven out of town by the removal of the academy, was one who became a lecturer in the anti-slavery field, and a pastor in a colored church in Washington, D.C."

In the spring of 1836 Oren entered Dartmouth College. There was much in the spirit of this school, founded as a missionary enterprise for the education of the Indians, that strongly appealed to the youth. In a little enclosure on the campus is the grave of Eleazer Wheelock, the founder of Dartmouth College. The place had a strange fascination for the new student, and as he often meditated by it, undefined possibilities in his own future took intangible form.

But his life was far from gloomy. Professor John Fullonton, who entered college the next autumn, told his daughter, Ida, in later years, that when he crossed the campus for the first time, he heard voices ringing out harmoniously across the yard. Looking up, he saw several young men sitting in the window and singing the church hymns then in vogue, and one of them, as he learned later was O. B. Cheney. "That window," said Dr. Fullonton impressively, " faced the east and Oren Cheney has faced the rising sun ever since." On entering college, he was at once invited to sit in the "singing seats."

The habits of economy, with which he had been reared, governed Cheney's life while in college. He and his classmate, G. G. Fogg, experimented at boarding themselves. Evidently, neither was an adept at cooking. They lived on a concoction of Indian meal, cold water, salt and saleratus — calling it a johnnycake — with the result that Oren fell sick and never afterward could bear the taste or even the smell of saleratus.

The young reformer was now in a sympathetic anti-slavery atmosphere. At one time he went with a company of students to a town near by, to hold an anti-slavery meeting in a beautiful grove, where a large audience had gathered. Dr. Cheney's reminiscences describe the events thus :

" Early in the meeting the place was surrounded by a crowd of men and boys with drums and horns for the purpose of making a disturbance. But we made the grove ring with anti-slavery songs, the speakers kept right on and the meeting proved a great success. We returned to college with flying colors, feeling quite as happy as any of the baseball or elocutionary victors of today.

" Boys of twenty-one years of age living in Hanover were then allowed to vote, and when it was found that our votes were cast in the interest of anti-slavery, the legislature decided that if we voted we must perform military duty. 'All right,' was our reply, and forthwith a company was organized with a senior for captain and other officers from the other classes. We secured a competent drill master and prepared for the next general training at Lebanon, which occurred on a beautiful day.

"With officers in fine uniforms, the rank and file in black coats and white pants, armed with bright new muskets, we marched beneath the folds of a beautiful new flag that had been presented to us, to the music of a firstclass band, secured from a distance at much trouble and expense. Some of the other companies were not in uniform and had only drum and fife accompaniment, and we completely captivated the admiring crowds that thronged our line of march. The waving of handkerchiefs by women, young and old, and the cheers of the crowd showed how great was the victory we had won over the pro-slavery spirit that had thought to crush us. I was told that the accident to my left hand would exempt me from military duty, but I wanted to enjoy the fun and so I was in it with the other boys."

BAPTISM

Oren's religious life had been steadily developing after entering Dartmouth ; and feeling impressed that he ought to be baptized, in May, 1836, he walked to his old home in Ashland, forty miles away — to ride would cost too much — was baptized by Rev. Simeon Dana, and united with the Free-Will Baptist church then worshiping in the house that he had helped to build. During the return tramp, his thoughts were occupied with high purposes and noble resolves.

The following winter he again augmented his finances by teaching school at Peterboro. Having an earnest desire to benefit his students in every way possible, he held a series of prayer-meetings at the close of the school exercises, inviting all who would to remain. This did not please a prominent business man in the place, who requested the teacher to desist. It would not have been Oren Cheney, had he yielded.

His opponent then called a district meeting. He had a large number of men in his employ and the school-house was crowded. The whole town was stirred. After a long discussion, a resolution was passed by one majority, in opposition to the teacher's course. Amid a deathlike silence, the stripling of twenty years calmly arose and quietly informed the audience that he held his position by vote of the school committee and should leave only at their request — that he had conscientious convictions about the matter and could not discontinue the service.

The school committee voted unanimously to sustain him, one of them, not a church member, saying that such a service was what every district needed. Young Cheney was called back to the same district the next winter, and to another school in the same town the year following. Seven years later this opponent of the student teacher came near being defeated as candidate for governor of New Hampshire, by the use against him of these circumstances of which others had learned and had published in a campaign document.

WORK FOR THE INDIANS SUNDAY SERVICES

Although, in the seventy-five years that had passed since the founding of Dartmouth College, the Indians had been pressed back by the advance of civilization, a company of them, men, women and children, used annually to encamp for several months in the Vale of Tempe, a short distance away. They were treated with the greatest kindness by the college authorities and students, no pains being spared to educate them. During a part of his college course, Oren went daily with a classmate to the camp-ground and taught the Indian boys and girls, neither expecting nor receiving any remuneration for the service. The fact that this classmate, a Southern young man, was paying his college expenses from the proceeds of the sale of a slave girl, furnishes an interesting comment on human consistency.

Later in his college course Oren found a small Free-Will Baptist interest at Grantham, ten miles away. Here he rendered services for many months, generally walking the twenty miles; going Saturday and leading a prayer meeting in the evening, on Sunday giving talks to a people not able to employ a regular pastor ; conducting a Sunday school and teaching a singing school — all this without any remuneration. His opportunity to render needed service was his ample reward, while to his last hours he was cheered by the loving regard of those whom he then served.

Among the pleasant homes where he was welcomed during his college life was that of the Bridgman family and he became deeply interested in the eight-year-old Laura, the blind, deaf and dumb child afterward so noted.

Throughout his college course Oren Cheney did good, faithful work in his classes. He always had a kindly remembrance of President Lord's interest in him. His class, which numbered about seventy on entering, graduated with sixty-one members. Oren outlived all but four.