Bates College

Cheney worked on various racial and gender equality, religious freedom, and temperance issues. In 1836, Cheney enrolled in Dartmouth College, due to the school's significant support of the abolitionist cause against slavery. After graduating, Cheney was ordained a Baptist minister and began to establish himself as an educational and religious scholar. Parsonsfield mysteriously burned down in 1854, allegedly due to arson by opponents of abolition. The event caused Cheney to advocate for a new seminary in a more central part of Maine. With Cheney's influence in the state legislature, the Maine State Seminary was chartered in 1855 and implemented a liberal arts and theological curriculum, making the first coeducational college in New England. Soon after establishment several donors stepped forward to finance portions of the school, such as Seth Hathorn, who donated the first library and academic building, which was renamed Hathorn Hall. The Cobb Divinity School became affiliated with the college in 1866. Four years …