CHAPTER XVII.Benjamin Cheney, Pioneer Clock Manufacturer. |
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288 At the Jamestown Exposition of 1907 was seen a clock loaned by Mrs. Frank Cheney, Jr., of Manchester. This clock, supposed to be the oldest in the state, was made by Benjamin Cheney, Jr., born in East Hartford, September 8, 1725. The Cheneys lived in the eastern part of East Hartford, set off in 1823 under the name of Manchester. Timothy Cheney, born 1731, brother of Benjamin, and a clockmaker also, was the ancestor of the Manchester Cheneys, of silk manufacturing fame. There was another brother, Silas, whose granddaughter, Mary Youngs, was fitted for a teacher. It is said that when on her way to take a school in North Carolina, she met, in New York, Horace Greeley, who afterward went south and secured her as his bride. Benjamin Cheney and his wife, Deborah (Olcott), came to Berlin and spent their declining years with their son Elisha, who was baptized in East Hartford (Manchester), January 11, 1770. On a single stone in the graveyard east of the Jarvis farm are these inscriptions: Benjamin Cheney, Died May 15th 1815 Æ 90. Deborah wife of Benjamin Cheney Died Nov. 3d, 1817 Æ 80.* Another stone bears this inscription:
Word of the death of Allen Cheney was sent to the family and Elisha went down to New York only to find that his brother had been buried. His trunk had been broken open and rifled of its contents; his gold watch was gone and his money also. The ancestry of this branch of the family is traced back, through Elisha, Benjamin, Benjamin, Peter, Peter, to John of *See Chapter II, page 30. 289 Newbury, Mass. It seems that before John decided to make a permanent home in Newbury he was for a time a parishioner of the Rev. John Eliot, who made the following entry on his church record: John Cheny he came into the Land in the yeare 1635, he brought 4 children, Mary, Martha, John, Daniel, Sarah 5t child was borne in the last month of the same year 1635, cald February, he removed from or church to Newbury the end of the next suer 1636, Martha Cheney the wife of John Cheny. Now, there was another Cheney family in Mr. Eliot's church—that of William Cheney. It is not known exactly how he was related to John. In his will, drawn just before his death in 1667, at the age of sixty-four years, he provides with tender forethought for the comfort of his "deare & afflicted wife Margaret." Six years later this curious record was placed on the Roxbury church book: 1673, 24, 3 m. Margaret Cheany widow having been long bound by Satan under a melancholick distemper, (above 10 or 11 yeares) wch made her wholy neglect her calling and live mopishly, this day gave thanks to God for loosing her chain, & confessing & bewailing her sinful yielding to temptation. And so Margaret had recovered from a long attack of nervous prostration. Elisha Cheney probably came to Berlin as early as 1793, when he was married to Olive, sister of Simeon North, daughter of Jedediah and Sarah (Wilcox) North. They lived for a time on Berlin Street in the house known as Fuller's tavern, now owned by the Atwater family. In 1804, when Emma Hart had her first school in the Brande-gee Mulberry grove, she made her home in stormy weather with the Cheneys. Children were set at work early in those days and it fell to the lot of ten-year-old Clarissa to clear up Miss Hart's room. Elisha Cheney bought the old brick schoolhouse on the Jarvis corner and it is supposed that he made clocks there. At first all the cogs were whittled out with a pen knife. The hand 290 carvings on those early clocks are beautiful. In 1801 Mr. Cheney bought, for the sake of the water power, a tract of land on Spruce Brook, north of the pistol factory and there in a little shop he turned pinions and wheels by machinery. Long afterwards children at play along the stream used to find those little clock wheels. By deed of date March 21, 1811, Reuben Woodruff conveyed to Elisha Cheney eleven acres of land "bounded North partly on highway—East on highway, South on land of Hosea Goodrich, West on land of Simeon North, containing all the land I bought of John Roberts, 2d, with Dwelling & Barn thereon standing." This will be recognized from the description, as the property at the top of the hill, south of Bowers Corners. The house, painted red, was of one story and additions were built on it as the family increased in size, until it had more corners than any other house in town. The shop stood opposite the house on the southeast corner, which was then in the town of Middle-town so that the clocks made there have on the label "Middle-town." Besides clocks, Mr. Cheney made by hand, screws for the North pistols, and gunlocks. Benjamin Cheney busied himself in the shop until he became enfeebled in body and mind. Toward the last he had to use two canes. He would start up from his chair and say "This will not do, I must not idle my time away here." With his staves he would manage to go out of the door and take a few steps across the yard toward the shop, when down he would fall, helpless, onto the ground, where he had to lie until helped up and back into the house. It was considered a necessity of life in his day for old people to take a certain amount of stimulant every day, and Elisha used to mix and give to his father each morning the proper quantity. A few minutes later Benjamin would call out "Elisha, where's Elisha ? He's forgotten to give me my toddy." The wife, Deborah, was extravagantly fond of tea so that she kept her teapot on the hearth all day long. The family thought it not good for her nerves to take so much strong tea 291 and her supply was limited. Then she made a drink of herbs until the end of the week, when she put her entire allowance of gunpowder into the teapot and brewed a cup quite to her taste. The children of Elisha and Olive (North) Cheney were: Clarissa, born February 5, 1794; Olcott, born May 27, 1795; Polly, born December 11, 1796; Harriet, born December 23, 1798; Orry, born February 5, 1804; Olive, born February 5, 1804, and Benjamin, born August 11, 1808. Clarissa was married February 19, 1818, to Deacon Joseph Savage. Their children were: Harriet Newell, wife of Noah C. Smith, Eliott, and Joseph. Mrs. Savage, her life filled with kind, useful deeds, died November 25, 1874, aged eighty-one years. Olcott, who worked with his father, leased the business in 1826. He finally bought it out and carried it on for a number of years in his own name, which appears in all the clocks of later make, on the label which reads thus: Improved Clock. Made and Sold by Olcott Cheney, Middletown. Warranted if well used. These clocks were excellent timekeepers, and in families where they have been "well used," they are in good running order to-day. Olcott Cheney lived in the house at the foot of the hill east of his father's, afterward known as the Barnet Doolittle place, now owned by Gustaf J. Lund. The Cheneys were Methodists; their daughter Polly was a great singer and was very helpful as a leader of hymns in the meetings. She and Roxy Deming, who lived near by on Savage Hill, used to have fine times singing together, and their voices were often heard away over on "East Street." Polly's hair curled naturally and fell in pretty ringlets around her ears. This attracted the attention of the Elders in her church and she was made a subject of discipline. Polly was wide awake and full of fun, but she had been converted and wanted to be good. She said she did not care anything about the curls; she wore them because that was the easiest way to dress her hair; she supposed she could comb it straight 292 back and so she put it all up in a twist, and then could sing her "title clear to mansions in the skies." She was married October 8, 1826, to Richard Cowles of Southington, Conn., and Lima, N. Y. She died December 3, 1839, aged forty-three years. Harriet Cheney was married October 13, 1819, to John North, son of Abel and Sarah (Wilcox) North. Of their ten children, eight lived to maturity. Their names were: Orrin Lyman, Elisha Cheney (died 1844, aged twenty-two years), Isaac, Harriet Maria, Olive Cheney, Sarah Ann, and Elizabeth Jane. A daughter, Louisa, aged three years, and a son, William H, aged one year, died only twelve days apart in September, 1839, while the family lived in the Deacon Hosford place. Mrs. North died May 2, 1889, in the ninety-second year of her age. Her descendants are more numerous than those of any other branch of Elisha Cheney's family. Orry Cheney was a school teacher. A paper of date "Berlin, April 16th, 1822," reads as follows: The Inhabitants of the South East District of Worthington School Society are hereby respectfuly informed that Orry Cheney proposes to commence a school the 1st Monday in May next at the house of Mr. John North's in which will be taught Beading Writing Geography E Grammer and Needle work. Terms of Tuition for those who study Grammer and Geography $1.50 pr quarter, for those who attend only to reading and spelling 75 cents. We the Subscribers do hereby agree to send on the above terms the number of Schollars affixed to our respective names. In the $1.50 column are these names: Reuben North, 2; Jedediah North, 1; Jemima Kelsey, 1; Allen Flag, 1; Harriet Wilcox, 1. Two daughters of Levi North, Marilla and Julia, are in the list. At 75 cents per quarter, R. North sends 1, Lyman Wilcox 3 and Normand Wilcox 2. This was three years after the marriage of John North, and his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Piper, thinks that he lived at that time in the Olcott Cheney house under the hill. 293 Orry was married to Walter W. Warner. They had five daughters and one son. Orry had a sweet, gentle disposition. The late Mrs. Eben Woodruff lived with her for a while in Wethersfield and thought everything of her. Olive, twin sister of Orry and youngest of the five daughters of Elisha Cheney, became the wife of Norris Wilcox, uncle of Francis C. Wilcox, who formerly lived in the house on Berlin Street now occupied as a parsonage. She died at Harmony, Wis., in 1895, aged ninety-one years. Olive was so much like Orry that to distinguish the sisters a blue ribbon was kept tied on "Olly's" arm. Benjamin worked with his father and brother at clock making. He married first, Adelia Blinn; second, Rebecca G. Noggle. He had five sons and two daughters. Elisha Cheney was anxious to have his daughters brought up to be sober-minded women and he frowned on anything like levity. Clarissa said she often held her hand over her mouth and ran back of the house out of sight when she had to laugh. Mrs. Cheney was a kind, motherly woman, who did all in her power to make everyone happy. She kept open house and her latch string was always out for the Methodist ministers, who made their headquarters there, and were free to remain as long as they pleased. Visitors were impressed by the exquisite neatness of the housekeeping. The kitchen floor was scoured so white that one need not fear to eat from off it. About the year 1835, Mr. and Mrs. Cheney with their daughters, except Harriet, and their families, removed to Lima, N. Y. After a while they decided to go on to Roscoe, Ill.—all but the Savages. Clarissa had seen enough of pioneer life and set down her foot that she would return to Connecticut. This was a disappointment to the others. There were no schools where they were going and they had depended on Harriet Savage to teach their children. Letters written east from Illinois by the Cheneys tell of hardships on the journey, and in starting life in the new country, and of the deer, wolves and other wild beasts that came around their log cabin. By day, to keep these animals 294 from stalking into the house, a blanket was hung across the doorway. In the cemetery at Roscoe, Ill., are these inscriptions: Elisha Cheney Olive, wife of Elisha Cheney Olcott and Benjamin Cheney went west, also, and settled in Beloit, Wis., where they prospered and lived many years. Benjamin, while on his way to visit his mother in 1849, stopped over night at a house where, as he afterward learned, there had been a case of smallpox. He did not take it, but the contagion was carried to his mother, in his clothes, and she died of the disease. Clarissa, Mrs. Savage, was only fifteen months old when her brother Olcott was born. She was so lively that her mother, when busy, used to place her underneath a certain large rocking chair, and then she said she knew where to find her. As Mrs. Cheney was preparing to go west she said "Clarissy" was brought up under that chair and she thought she ought to have it for her own and it was given to her. |
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