Benjamin Pierce Cheney was born on August 12, 1815 at Hillsborough, New Hampshire, United States, the son of Jesse and Alice (Steele) Cheney. He came of early New England stock. His great-grandfather, Deacon Tristram Cheney, born in Dedham, Massachusetts, was one of the first settlers of Antrim, New Hampshire, and his grandfather, Elias Cheney, served four years in the Revolutionary War. His father was a blacksmith.
Young Cheney received formal education.
Cheney started to work at the age of ten in his father’s blacksmith shop. Before two years had passed he had gone to Francistown where he found employment in a tavern and later in a store. At the age of sixteen he had purchased his time from his father and begun his career in the transportation business by driving a stage between Nashua and Exeter, New Hsmpshire. On his next route, between Keene and Nashua, he covered a distance of fifty miles a day for a period of six years.
In 1836 he was sent to Boston to be stationed as agent at No. 11 Elm St. , the old-time stage center for northern stage routes. Six years later, in partnership with Nathaniel White of Nashua, and William Walker, he established Cheney & Company’s Express between Boston and Montreal. The route was covered by rail to Concord, New Hampshire, which was as far as the Boston & Lowell Railroad was built at that time, thence by four- horse team to Montpelier, thence by messengers on the stage to Burlington, and finally by boat to Montreal. In spite of difficulties, the venture was successful and at the end of its first ten years Cheney & Company bought out Fisk & Rice’s Express, operating over the Fitchburg Road to Burlington, which was the first of the companies to be consolidated with Cheney’s.
Future consolidations resulted eventually in the formation of the United States & Canada Express Company which, with its many branches, covered the northern New England States. When, after thirty-seven years of business, Cheney merged his company with the American Express Company, he became its treasurer, and one of its directors. He retained these offices until his retirement from active business life.
Cheney did not confine all his interests to New England, however.
He was one of the pioneers in promoting the Northern Pacific Railroad and a little later embarked in the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe project. He was interested in the “Overland Mail” to San Francisco and in the Wells, Fargo & Company’s Express.
Through his business ventures he amassed a great fortune.
In the early days of transcontinental transportation there were periods of decline as well as of prosperity, but Cheney had a tenacity of purpose and a conviction as to the worth and future of his projects, which, coupled with an inherent shrewdness and business ability, brought success to his undertakings.
For many years he served as a director of the Market National Bank of Boston, and from the time of its foundation was a director of the American Loan & Trust Company.
Benjamin Pierce Cheney was knonw as an express business pioneer. He was the founder of United States & Canada Express Company and one of the largest stockholders of the American Express Company. He made Dartmouth College a gift of $50. 000 and presented to his native state a bronze statue of Daniel Webster, one of his early stage-coach passengers, which now stands in State House Park in Concord.
Cheney was a member of Massachusetts Horticultural Society.
Cheney was a man of erect appearance, easy of approach.
On June 6, 1865, Cheney married Elizabeth Stickney Clapp of Boston, whom, as the daughter of his most intimate friend, he had seen grow up from infancy.
