Benjamin Pierce Cheney

Infobox Person
name = Benjamin Pierce Cheney


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caption = Benjamin Pierce Cheney
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birth_date = 12 August 1815
birth_place = Hillsborough, NH
death_date = 23 July, 1895
death_place = Wellesley, MA
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known_for = Founder, American Express Company
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spouse = Elizabeth Stickney Clapp
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Benjamin Pierce Cheney,
Alice Cheney,
Mary Cheney, and
Elizabeth Cheney
parents = Jesse and Alice (Steele) Cheney
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Benjamin Pierce Cheney (August 12, 1815 – July 23, 1895) was an American businessman, and a founder of the firm that became American Express. The surname is pronounced IPA| ['tʃi:ni] .

Early life

Cheney was born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire on 12 August, 1815 to Jesse and Alice (Steele) Cheney. His father (1788-1863) was a blacksmith.

Cheney began working in his father's shop at age 10, and at the tavern and store in Francestown at age 12. By age 16, he started work as a a stage-coach driver between Nashua and Keene. The stage did a brisk business due to the dearth of rail lines at the time. Cheney built relationships with some of his passengers at this time, including Daniel Webster whose friendship lasted the rest of his life. [White p 214] As his reputation for reliability and honesty grew he was frequently entrusted with large sums of money destined for banks on his route.

American Express

In 1842 he partnered with Nathaniel White of Nashua and William Walker to organize an express between Boston and Montreal under the name Cheney & Co. Ten years later he bought out Fisk & Rice express which gave him control of the Boston and Burlington VT route. Further acquistions and consolidations formed the United States and Canada Express Company,Pope, Charles Henry. "The Cheney Genealogy". Charles H. Pope (1897), pp. 505-08.] which in 1879 he merged with American Express,Harrison, Mitchell C. "Prominent and Progressive Americans: An Encyclopædia of Contemporaneous Biography". New York Tribune (1902), p. 55.] at which time he became the firm's largest shareholder.

Other business interests

Through his business contacts, Cheney obtained interested in the Northern Pacific railroad and the San Diego Land and Town Co. He was founder of and a director of the Market National Bank of Boston and the American Loan and Trust Co.

Cheney's strength of character is demonstrated by his actions during the decline and liquidation of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad, of which he was a director. When it became evident the firm was in dire straits, other directors sold their shares. Cheney, on the other hand, refused to take advantage of his inside information and held his shares, suffering a significant personal loss when the railroad was liquidated. [White p 214]

Civic activities

Cheney endowed a professorship at Dartmouth College, commissioned a bronze statue of his friend Daniel Webster, which is located in front of the New Hampshire State House, and helped develop the eastern part of Washington state with a railroad. As a result, Cheney, Washington, is named in his honor, and he helped establish a school there that evolved into Eastern Washington University.

Personal and family life

In 1854 while returning home from Canada, he lost his right arm in a railway accident. He married Elizabeth Stickney Clapp of Dorchester, MA on 6 June 1865, and had children Benjamin Pierce Cheney, Alice Cheney, Mary Cheney, and Elizabeth Cheney. He amassed a fortune estimated at $10,000,000.

Cheney's estate in Wellesley, Massachusetts has since become the Elm Bank Horticulture Center. He retired to this 198 acre property and occupied himself with beautifying the land. It was here where he died on 23 July, 1895.

References

* Streeter, Ruth Cheney. "Benjamin Pierce Cheney, 1815-1895", R. C. Streeter, Morristown, New Jersey, 1963.
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=gMEOs4na_yAC&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=benjamin+pierce+cheney&source=web&ots=60Ivey6dd_&sig=bESg_wPp3NX1RxZmetABfFGQTws "The Cyclopaedia of American Biography" article on Cheney] cite book
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title = The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography
publisher =James T. White & Co
location = New York
date = 1909
pages = 214-215
URL =http://books.google.com/books?id=tt4DAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA215&dq=%22elm+bank%22&as_brr=1#PPA215,M1