In the early 1800s, amid the hills and hollows of Lewis County, (West) Virginia, Mary Taylor Squires was born into a world of rugged terrain and deep faith. The daughter of Asa Squires and Sarah Eastep, Mary grew up along Salt Lick Creek, where her family helped build one of the region’s earliest Methodist meeting houses.
It was here, in the shadow of campfires and sermons, that she met a young circuit rider named Shadrach Cheney.
On Wednesday, October 9, 1793, in a log cabin in the Pennsylvania Appalachian Mountains, Martha Cheney gave birth to her ninth child. She named him Shadrach, a namesake of his paternal grandfather.
Shadrach Cheney is our 4th great-grandparent.
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In the years following independence, Gilbert and Martha Cheney transitioned from renters on Penn Proprietorship land to landowners in the new American republic.
Their names appear in oaths of allegiance, tax rolls, and land warrants—each record a step toward permanence in the Pennsylvania frontier.
Continue readingBy the mid-1700s, the Appalachian frontier beckoned. Gilbert and Martha Cheney—our fifth great-grandparents—joined the wave of settlers seeking land and opportunity in the remote valleys of central Pennsylvania.
Their story unfolds on Warrior’s Ridge, between Shaver’s Creek and Standing Stone Creek, where wilderness met perseverance.
Gilbert and Martha Cheney are our 5th great-grandparents. We’re sure of that. We have a paper trail from Gilbert and Martha to our present-day Cheneys.
But we have a problem. We don’t know Gilbert Cheney’s parents.
Continue readingCharles Cheney’s neighbor Col. William Burgess had built a wharf on the South River and laid out some lots for a town. He named it London Town.
Charles Cheney and his family were second generation tobacco planters.
In 1700, tobacco was Maryland’s dominant cash crop, particularly in Southern Maryland, which was ideal for its growth with its suitable soil, ample rain, and river access for transportation.
The crop was so central to Maryland’s society that it was used as currency to pay taxes, debts, and even official salaries.
Richard Cheney died in early 1685. He was probably in his 60s. He’d lived in the South River Hundred in Maryland for 35 years.
This story traces the final mentions of Richard, the inheritance left to his children, and the legacy that endured beyond his burial.
In 17th-century Maryland, disease, childbirth, and the harsh conditions of frontier living claimed lives early and often.
Charity Cheney, wife of Richard, was an unfortunate victim.
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Anne Arundel County, Maryland, requires an archaeological survey before any new construction project begins.
In 1998, a routine survey for a housing subdivision near Riva Road uncovered something extraordinary: the remains of the 1658-era homestead of Richard and Charity Cheney.
What began as a compliance dig quickly evolved into a landmark discovery—Cheney Hill, perched atop a steep knoll overlooking the South River.
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Family Nibbles 