Oren Burbank Cheney
| Oren Burbank Cheney | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 1st President of Bates College | |
|
In office March 16, 1855 – March 1, 1894 |
|
| Succeeded by | George Colby Chase |
| Member of the Maine House of Representatives from the 86th district | |
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In office December 12, 1851 – November 3, 1852 |
|
| Preceded by | Ephraim K. Smart |
| Succeeded by | Israel Washburn |
| Constituency | Augusta, Maine, U.S. |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 10, 1816 Holderness, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Died | December 22, 1903 (aged 87) Lewiston, Maine, U.S. |
| Resting place |
Riverside Cemetery Lewiston, Maine, U.S. |
| Political party |
Liberty Party 1842-1850 Free Soil Party 1851-1853 Republican Party 1854-1903 |
| Spouse(s) |
Caroline A. Rundlett (m. 1840; death 1846) Nancy S. Perkins (m. 1847; death 1886) Emeline S. Burlingame (m. 1892; death 1903) |
| Relations | Person & Elisas Hutchins Cheney (brothers) |
| Parents | Abigail and Moses Cheney |
| Alma mater | Dartmouth College |
| Occupation | Abolitionist, university founder, state representative |
| Signature |  |
| ^a He served as president at the college's founding, however, there is a discrepancy with its founding date. | |
Oren Burbank Cheney (/θrʒn/ /buːrbɑːnk/ /dʒeɪniː/; December 10, 1816 – December 22, 1903) was an American politician, minister, and statesman who was a key figure in the abolitionist movement in the United States during the later 19th century. Along with textile tycoon Benjamin Bates, he founded the first coeducational university in New England–Bates College–which is widely considered his magnum opus. Cheney is one of the most extensively covered subjects of Neoabolitionism, for his public denouncement of slavery, involuntary servitude, and advocation for fair and equal representation, egalitarianism, and personal sovereignty.
Cheney's main social ideology was that of egalitarianism; he personally voiced his disdain for racial inequality, social elitism, and socioeconomic depravation regularly, in controversial speeches and articles. He was ordained a minister in his early twenties, became the headmaster at Parsonsfield, and illegally harbored and transferred slaves to safety during the 1840s in New Hampshire–an action punishable with a decade's jail time by the federal Fugitive Slave acts. His religious community work garnered him widespread support culminating in him being nominated for a seat in the Maine House of Representatives without his knowledge. Having been told he was nominated and elected on his way to his induction ceremony, Cheney would go on to be an able Free Soil legislator. His first bills drafted and passed supported state prohibition, advocated for temperance, regulated liquor traffic (notably the passage of the Maine Liquor Law), and provided the funds for his first school–the Lebanon Academy in Lebanon, Maine. He gave many formal speeches to the legislature regarding the reduction of slavery to mixed reaction and death threats; historians have occasionally noted him as "completely and utterly careless with his life."
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