348 – Family Nibbles – Volume 12

Mark Jarvis

Family Nibbles – Volume 12 is here! This book is about the lives of our Cheney ancestors from 1650 to 1920.

London Town, South River, Anne Arundel, Maryland

Richard and Charity Cheney were our earliest ancestors in North America. By 1650, they were living on the South River near Chesapeake Bay in the British colony of Maryland.

In 1998, a survey unearthed the 1658 homestead of Richard and Charity Cheney. Archaeologists found a trove of artifacts.

The artifacts were possessions that our Cheney ancestors touched and used 350 years ago. It’s said the artifacts included scraps of a pre-publication Family Nibbles book.

Artifacts from 1658 Cheney homestead

Our grandparent Charles Cheney was one of the children of Richard Cheney and his second wife Eleanor. Charles inherited a part of his father’s estate on the South River.

Charles and his wife Anne expanded the Cheney holdings. They were sustained by the tobacco economy. Tobacco was the crop and currency of early Maryland.

Shadrach Cheney was one of eleven children of Charles Cheney. Born in 1718, Shadrach is our grandparent. He, too, spent his life in the tobacco economy of Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

Gilbert Cheney was one of Shadrach’s sons. Born in 1750, Gilbert is our grandparent.

By the mid-1700s, family tobacco estates had been divided and further sub-divided over generations. There wasn’t enough land left to sub-divide for children. Gilbert and Martha Cheney and others moved from Maryland to central Pennsylvania.

Gilbert and Martha Cheney were early pioneers in the remote Juniata River valley. They forged a life in the Pennsylvania wilderness and raised a family of nine children.

Their eighth child, Shadrach Cheney, was born in 1796. He’s our grandparent.

In the early 1800s, Shadrach Cheney became a Methodist circuit rider.

The circuit rider carried all his belongings with him – his Bible, his Family Nibbles book, his clothes, a bedroll, a warm and waterproof coat, etc.

On one of his circuit assignments in Lewis County, Virginia, Shadrach preached at the meeting house and campground on Salt Lick Creek. That’s where he met and married Mary Taylor Squires.

After decades of itinerant frontier preaching, Shadrach retired. He and Mary moved to Christian County, Illinois, taking up farming.

Shadrach and Mary had twelve children. Their eighth child, William Thomas Cheney, was born in 1838. He’s our grandparent.

In the Civil War, three of Shadrach and Mary Cheney’s sons answered the call.

James Cheney joined the 15th Kentucky Infantry. He was wounded and partially paralyzed. He was discharged.

Franklin Cheney became an officer in the 64th Regiment Infantry U.S. Colored Troops. Franklin served almost five years.

William Cheney enlisted in the 9th Illinois Infantry. In the battle of Shiloh, William suffered a gunshot wound, the ball penetrating his left shoulder. It “disabled him entirely for military service,” and he was discharged.

After the Civil War, William Cheney married Eliza Watkins, whose family lived on a neighboring farm. William was a teacher and farmer.

In 1877, William and Eliza moved from Illinois to McPherson County, Kansas. The Homestead Act had opened up free land for settlement and farming.

We’re lucky to have Eliza Cheney’s diary, a first-hand account of Kansas farm life in the early 1900s.

William and Eliza had three children, Sarah “Sallie,” Enos Ralph “E.R.,” and James William “J.W.”

E.R. Cheney, born in 1871, is our grandparent. In 1890s, E.R. Cheney became a country doctor in Gypsum, Kansas, where he and wife Mollie raised their family.

E.R. Cheney

E.R. and Mollie Cheney had three sons, Rollo, Ralph “Ned”, and Fred. E.R. and Ida Cheney had a daughter, Ida Jane.

Ned Cheney, born in 1895, is our grandparent. Like his father, Ned Cheney became a doctor. While Ned was an intern in Wichita, he met Emily Maninger. She was a nursing student from Harper, Kansas. Ned and Emily married in 1921.

Ned and Emily Cheney – 1921

Ned and Emily moved to Salina, Kansas, where Ned opened his medical practice.

Their first child, Mary, was born in 1921.

Emily Maninger Cheney and Mary Margaret Cheney – 1923

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my grandparents, Ralph Edwin “Ned” Cheney and Emily Corraine Maninger “Koma” Cheney. 

Grandparents make the world a little softer, a little kinder, and a little warmer.

Unknown author

Grandad had a 1956 Chrysler station wagon.  My grandmother’s enduring image was Ned and five grandsons and two hunting dogs in his station wagon heading for the farm.  She said it looked like someone was stirring the soup. 

At the farm we dug potatoes, learned marksmanship and gun safety, and learned to drive the tractor and pickup truck at a very young age.

Grandad seemed gruff, but I think he was a softie.  He was gone by the time I was a teenager, so I didn’t really get to know him

Koma was a grandmother who loved babies and little kids.  She absolutely loved holding any one of her great-grandchildren when they were young.

She was ever so kind, always smiling, and always willing to give all her attention to you.  We learned to paint, crochet, and cook.  One of my favorite memories as a teenager was taking her to the farm pond to fish.  She caught several bass, and was so happy.  We took them home, where she cooked up the best fish dinner ever.

In her later years, Koma sponsored family reunions. She funded her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to gather for weekends of fun, food, and togetherness.  The great-grandchildren would always present a play or musical entertainment called “Koma’s Kids.”  Those reunions were a lasting gift to her family.

And, as always, this book is dedicated to the families that come after us.  I hope this look at our past helps them appreciate their heritage.

There’s a little bit of each of our ancestors in us.  Let’s appreciate their message to us.

What you are, we were.  What we are, you will be.

Family Nibbles Books

You can get the books any of three ways: Amazon paperback, Google eBook, or Kindle eBook.

Amazon Books Paperback

You can get the paperback books at Amazon. Search for ‘Family Nibbles’ or ‘Family Nibbles book.’

The books are priced from $30 to $45. They’re worth every penny!

Google eBook

You can find the eBooks on Google Books or Google Play. They’re free!

They’re best read on your iPad or tablet using Google Play Reader app. And you can read in Firefox on your Macbook.

Kindle eBook

You can find the ebooks on Amazon or Kindle Store. The price is $2.99 per book.

You can read this version on any Kindle reader or Kindle app on your iPad.

Thanks

Thanks to all you readers.

It’s rewarding to collect Family Nibbles stories into this book, but the part I most enjoy is the research and discovery and sharing of our family stories.

We’ve now discovered stories about our four grandparent pairs – Teply/Kloppenberg, Gallagher/Riley, Jarvis/Webb, and Maninger/Cheney.

Our next series of stories will investigate how these families fared during the Great Depression and World War II.

Sources

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