1867 - 1890

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• Suffix	[twin]
  Birth	2 Jun 1867	Bethel, Mi   [1]
  Gender	Female
  Died	15 Jan 1890	East Gilead, Mi   [1]
  Person ID	I55137	Brainard (Brainerd) / Foster / Fish
  Last Modified	13 Apr 2005 00:00:00
  Father	Reuben CHENEY, b. 21 Apr 1824, Naseby, , England
  Mother	Elizabeth Ann BLANCHETT, b. 20 Oct 1830, Portsmouth, England
  Family ID	F23015	Group Sheet
  Family	Curtis MABREY
  Married	1887	Bronson, Mi   [1]
  Children	> 1. Harrison Clare MABREY, b. 19 Oct 1889
  Family ID	F23893	Group Sheet

• Notes

  [JohnCheney.FTW] From Newspaper Clippings provided by Virginia Stickan, December 2001: Alice Cheney, Ovid - Died at her home in east Gilead, Jan. 5, 1890, of scarlet fever after an illness of only four days. Alice Mabrey, wife of Curtis Mabrey and daughter of the late Reuben Cheney. "None knew her but to love her." Her sudden death is a great shock to her friends, and say to us all, "Be ye also ready." She leaves a babe of eleven weeks, and a sorrow-stricken husband and only two short years married. Surely "Death loves a shining mark". A BIT OF BIOGRAPHY Read at the Memorial Services of Alice Cheney Mabrey, Jan. 26, 1890, in the Baptist Church of Kinderhook. Twenty-two and a half years age, in the flowery month of June, the twin sisters, Alice and Bernice Cheney, made their advent into this ever changeful world, heralded by the bright blossoms, the rippling brooks and the song of birds. In two short weeks they were motherless and the home next was broken up. But just at this time, two God-fearing mothers who had lost their daughters by marriage and were saying over to themselves, in the words of the "Ancient Arrow Maker", "Thus it is our daughters leave us, Those we love, and those who love us, Just as they have learned to help us, When we are old and lean upon them, Comes a youth with flaunting feathers, Beckons to the fairest maiden, And she follows where he leads her, Leaving all things for the stranger." These mothers opened their loving hearts and homes to these motherless twin lambs. Thus in God's providence each found a sheltering fold and tender nursing. They came into their adopted homes like rays of sunlight, brightening everything and cheering their foster parents by their sweet baby voices and cunning ways. Six years of happy childhood passed swiftly away, when the angels claimed Bernice and took her to their bright home. And let us believe that all down through the intervening years she has been Alice's guardian angel, "Calling her away, calling her away, calling to a better land." What spring time is to the year, what sunlight is to earth, Alice was in the home of her adoption - affectionate, bright, cheerful and helpful, she found her way into all hearts. And to father and mother Cheney, in their declining years, she was as a bed of pansies in a snow drift. A child of many prayers, she became a Christian at the age of 17 and united with the Kinderhook Baptist church, of which she remained a consistent member, active in the missionary society and ready for all church work. She loved to sing. Among her favorite hymns were "On Christ the Solid Rock I stand," and "It is well, it is well with my soul.". Today she sings the songs of the redeemed in a "land that is fairer than day." Two years ago on a bright New Year's day she gave her happiness into the keeping of the husband of her choice - a young, rose-cheeked bride, fitted to adorn any home, and with fair prospects of a long and happy life. But God in his infinite wisdom ordered it otherwise. The Death Angel plucked the rose from off her cheek to blossom in the garden of Paradise. And although we long for her presence we know that our loving Heavenly Father has only taken up one more link of the golden chain that binds us to heaven, and that Alice, as was said of another, has found "the morning light of fairer than italian skies, while we yet grope among the shadows. But by and by we shall go home at evening and find it morning there." As we looked upon her youthful face for the last time we could but think as was said of "Little Nell:" "She seemed a creature fresh from the hand of God, and waiting for the breath of life; not one who had lived and suffered death" Her earthly life closed suddenly, like an unfinished poem, but who shall say that the little one left motherless, looking, ever looking, for that one dear familiar face, may not take up the poem and carry it on to its completion? As a beautiful song once heard is never forgotten, so the memory of this fresh young life will abide in our hears evermore - not as a myth or a dream, but as a living, breathing reality. "To live in the hearts of those we love is not to die." Let us think of her as "Only just across the river, Only on the other side Where the angels are in waiting, And the pure in heart abide." watching and waiting to welcome us as we shall, one by one, cross to the other shore. Let us not waste our time in vain regrets over what has been left unsaid and undone, but rather be the more thoughtful and tender of those who are left us. "Let's not fill with costly perfume Alabaster boxes white, Hiding al love's precious ointment Far away from mortal sight. Let's not keep our flowers for coffins; They can cast no frangrance back O'er the weary life that's ended, O'er the lonely cheerless track. Let's not save our kindest sayings, Let's not keep the tears unshed Till the "silver cord is loosened," And the friend beloved is dead. Take the alabaster boxes, Break them in our homes today, Shed their sweet and lovely perfume All along life's rugged way. Send our flowers to friends while living, Pick the blossoms wet with dew They will whisper thoughts of gladness, They will breathe of kindness true. Sympathize with hearts of sadness, Bid the fainting one be strong, Reach a hand to help the fallen, Sing a cheerful, helpful song." Jennie M. Cheney

• Sources

  [S611] JohnCheney.FTW. Date of Import: May 14, 2003