Oren Burbank Cheney

Oren Burbank Cheney
1st President of Bates College
In office March 16, 1855[a] – March 1, 1894
Succeeded by	George Colby Chase
Member of the Maine House of Representatives from the 86th district
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	(1816-12-10)December 10, 1816 Holderness, New Hampshire, U.S.
Died	December 22, 1903(1903-12-22) (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
Spouses	Caroline A. Rundlett ​ ​ (m. 1840; died 1846)​ Nancy S. Perkins ​ ​ (m. 1847; died 1886)​ Emeline S. Burlingame ​ ​ (m. 1892; died 1903)​
Relations	Person & Elisas Hutchins Cheney (brothers)
Parent(s)	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, although there is a discrepancy with its founding date.

Oren Burbank Cheney (December 10, 1816 – December 22, 1903)^[1][2] 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 Bates College as the first coeducational college in New England which is widely considered his magnum opus. Cheney is one of the most extensively covered subjects of Neoabolitionism,^[3][4][5] 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 deprivation regularly, in controversial speeches and articles. He was ordained a minister in his early twenties, became the headmaster at Parsonsfield, Maine, 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 his nomination 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,^[6] 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),^[7] and provided the funds for his first school–the Lebanon Academy in Lebanon, Maine. He gave many abolitionist speeches to the legislature, which produced mixed reactions and death threats; historians have occasionally noted him as "completely and utterly careless with his life."^[6][4]

He was elected as the only delegate to attend the 1852 Free Soil Party Convention in Pittsburgh from Maine, where he famously advocated for anti-slavery, and physically threatened the owner of a local tavern for refusing to serve Frederick Douglass, a noted abolitionist and black member of the party. After his political career, he continued to publish anti-slavery pieces in his newspaper, and establish the Maine State Seminary, which would later be named "Bates College."^[2] He governed as the first President of Bates College for nearly four decades–from 1855 to 1894–creating its liberal arts curriculum, hiring faculty, and choosing its campus; during this time he adopted the moniker O.B. Cheney.