Oren Burbank Cheney (1816-1903) was the founder and first president of Bates College. At the founding of the school in 1855 (as Maine State Seminary), he had been principal at several other schools in Maine and New Hampshire, had served a term in the state legislature, and was a Freewill Baptist minister in Augusta. He oversaw the obtaining of a charter for the Seminary and then for the College (in 1864), and served as President until retiring in 1894. In addition to his work at Bates, he was involved in the establishment of Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield, and Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
Submissions from 1864
Diary -- transcript, Oren B. Cheney