Charles Cheney (December 26, 1803 - June 20, 1874) was an important figure in the organization of the Cheney Silk Company in South Manchester, Connecticut.
Cheney was born on December 26, 1803 in Manchester, Connecticut as the son of George Cheney and Electa Woodbridge. When he was about fourteen years old, he removed to Tolland, Connecticut as a clerk and engaged in mercantile business on his own account in Providence, Rhode Island when he came of age. In 1834, he removed to Ohio, Connecticut, and established himself as a farmer at Mount Healthy, near Cincinnati, Ohio, where he remained for eleven years, during which period he became interested in the anti-slavery movement. There, he became a friend ofSalmon P. Chase, later a member of Abraham Lincoln's cabinet. They were both engaged in the building of a new turnpike road and they were both abolitionists. Indeed, Charles' house in Ohio was the first "underground railroad" station beyond Cincinnati. In 1842, he returned home to Manchester, Connecticut
In 1847, Cheney joined his brothers at Cheney Brothers Silk in South Manchester, Connecticut. In 1855, there was an acute labor shortage in Manchester, due to the rapid expansion of the business. The brothers decided to move a portion of the business to Hartford, and put Charles in charge. He and his family thus moved to a house on Prospect Street. Between 1855 and 1862, two mills were built on the north side of Morgan Street by the river. Indeed, the old Cheney mill, where G. Fox & Company built their warehouses, stood until about 1945.
Cheney retired to Manchester, Connecticut in 1868 at the age of 65, and died there on June 20, 1874.
Family[]
Cheney married first to Waistill Dexter Shaw in 1829. She died on April 6, 1841 of tuberculosis.
- Frank Woodbridge Cheney - m. Mary Bushnell
- Knight Dexter Cheney
- Mary Howell Cheney (1834-1836) - died young.
- Sarah Shaw Cheney (1835-1836) - died young.
Cheney married second to Harriet Bowen. She died in January 1870, and the couple produced no children.