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Cheney, (pronounced che'-ne) is a city in
Spokane County, Washington, United States.
Eastern Washington University is located in
Cheney, and its population grows to
approximately 17,600 people on a temporary
basis when classes at Eastern Washington
University are in session.
Named for Boston railroad tycoon Benjamin
Pierce Cheney, Cheney was officially
incorporated on November 28, 1883.
Cheney developed into the city known today
because of its strong ties to education,
rail, and agriculture. This provided a
strong economic base for the community and
was the result of a much larger event that
took place in the United States. In 1858,
the last Indian uprising occurred in Eastern
Washington. Because isolated Eastern
Washington was an area of this Indian unrest
during the early part of the territorial
period, it was not until the late 1860s and
early 1870s that settlers made homes in the
area. In the latter part of that decade,
settlers attracted by plentiful water and
timber and the promise of a railway line
made their homes near a group of springs
bubbling through a willow copse from the
bank where the Burlington Northern depot now
stands.
The
name of the little community, originally
Section Thirteen, became Willow Springs,
then became Depot Springs, because of its
ties to the railroad, then Billings, in
honor of a president of the Northern Pacific
Company, and finally Cheney, Washington in
honor of Benjamin P. Cheney, a director of
the Northern Pacific Railroad.
Benjamin P. Cheney was the eldest son of a
blacksmith who was born in 1815 at
Hillsborough, New Hampshire. At age 16, he
started work as a stagecoach driver between
Nashua and Keene. Five years later he had
become a stage agent in Boston and soon
organized an express between Boston and
Montreal. He later consolidated that
stagecoach line with others to form the
United States and Canada Express Company,
which 37 years later he merged with American
Express, at which time he became American
Express's largest shareholder. The only time
Cheney actually visited the town of Cheney
was on September 18, 1883 following the
"Last Spike Ceremony" which was the joining
of the eastern and western divisions of the
railroad. Mr. Cheney donated $10,000 to
establish the Benjamin P. Cheney Academy in
the town. The railroad donated 8 acres
(32,000 m2) of land so that the educational
facility could be built. In 1880 the
railroad was graded through the town, and in
1883 the town was incorporated with the
streets laid out in the shape of a triangle
with the base parallel to the tracks. The
railroad tracks were not in a true east-west
line, however, so the original town is askew
with the map; the newer part of Cheney was
built more to the compass.
After a stormy series of boundary changes
caused by legislative acts, Spokane County
was created with a permanent county seat
still to be selected. Contenders for the
honor were Cheney and Spokane Falls (now
Spokane). Cheney received a majority of the
votes, but because of alleged irregularities
at the polls the election was won by Spokane
Falls. When this was taken to court, a
circuit court judge agreed to a ballot
recount. Such recount failed to materialize,
however, and the citizens of Cheney took
matters into their own hands.
On a
night when most of the residents of Spokane
Falls were at a gala wedding celebration, a
delegation of armed "Cheneyites" invaded the
Auditor's office, took possession of the
books, did their own ballot recount which
showed Cheney the victor, and made off into
the darkness with the records. The "Grand
Steal" was not contested and was confirmed
by a court decision in 1881.
Cheney remained the county seat until 1886
when the faster-growing Spokane Falls again
brought the issue to a vote and regained the
seat. From this point on, the history of
Cheney revolves around the growth of the
State Normal School, later Eastern
Washington College of Education, later
Eastern Washington State College and finally
Eastern Washington University. The fierce
determination of Cheney to build and promote
its college was largely to regain its lost
prestige over the county seat.
When
Washington became a state in 1889, Cheney
was able to obtain legislation establishing
one of the state normal schools, mandatory
under the Enabling Act, in Cheney. Its most
convincing argument was that it already had
the physical beginnings of a normal school
in the Benjamin P. Cheney Academy.
Disagreement between legislators and
governors resulted in three appropriation
vetoes for the normal school in the next 25
years, but in each case, the citizens of
Cheney somehow raised the funds to keep the
college going until the next legislative
session. The growth of the Cheney Normal
School and the transformation of the
frontier land into a thriving community were
the basis for the changing attitudes in this
area. The innovators who created the small
community atmosphere were the women of the
frontier. All of the energies that were once
focused into making the west a home for
their families were transformed into
creating a vision of preferred lifestyle
choices for the youth. City
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