Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas The Chesney Family Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

THE CHESNEY FAMILY

(transcribed by Peggy Luce)

Among the places of Butler County that have undergone the least change is the Chesney home in El Dorado which has been in the possession of the Chesney family since 1886.

The Chesneys were of Scotch, Irish, and English descent, tracing back through the Latimers to Elder William Brewster of the Mayflower, through the Chesneys to William Chesney who had come from England to America in the eighteenth century and settled in Maryland. From Maryland his descendants had been lured westward to Indiana and later to Abingdon, Illinois. It was here that James Hamlin Chesney, the founder of the Chesney home in El Dorado was born and educated, attending Hedding College.

His ardent Republican spirit and his strong sympathy for the Union caused him to run away at the age of seventeen and enlist in Company G of the 137th Infantry of Illinois.

After he returned home to Abingdon, he married Elizabeth White, a native of Knox County, Illinois, educated at Cherry Grove Seminary. She was of English descent, tracing her ancestry back to William White and his son, Peregrine, who was born on the Mayflower while that vessel rode at anchor in the harbor of Boston in 1662.

It was after the birth of their first two children, Edith and Edwin Roy, that Mr. and Mrs. Chesney came to Kansas, locating first in Pittsburg. In 1886, they came to El Dorado. On the day after their arrival, Mr. Chesney bought the Chesney home and lived there until his death in 1915, Mrs. Chesney having died in 1898. In this home his younger son, Robert Hamlin Chesney was born, in 1894, and reared. This son after his marriage to Miss Beulah Vansant made Wichita his home. To them was born one son, Robert Hamlin Chesney.

Edwin Roy Chesney, the older son of James Hamlin Chesney married Dora Dowse of El Dorado. Later they made their home in Wichita where Mr. Chesney died in 1927, leaving two children, Edwin Roy and Elizabeth Louise. Edwin Roy was married in August, 1933 to Ruth Mullin.

Edith Chesney, the only daughter of James Hamlin Chesney and Elizabeth Chesney, his wife, has continued to live in the home place. Her paternal aunt, Miss Anna L. Chesney has shared the Chesney home with her since 1918. These two have been equally interested in church work, philanthropic work and club work of El Dorado.

Edith Chesney is a member of the Avon Club and has devoted much time to the work of the Red Cross and Daughters of the American Revolution, being state corresponding secretary of the Daughters of the American Revolution for four years. It is through her care that the Chesney home has been kept intact in the midst of all the changes that have taken place since 1886.