Maude: The People

Maude’s parents were Gilbert Cheney (1861-1947) and Emma Taluluah (Wright, 1862-1935). Gilbert was a farmer and he and “Lula” met in Dirt Town, Georgia. They were married in 1883 and had 6 children- Louise (1884-1950), Pauline (1887-1978), Owen (1889-1968), Marx (1891-1970), Maude, and John (1901-1968). The family moved to Comanche, Texas, around 1900 and by the time John was born, the family was living in Bentonville, Arkansas. This would remain their home until around 1935, when they moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas around the time that many of their children moved there as well. Lula died on October 17th, 1935, and Gil died on March 20th, 1947, in Hot Springs.

Louise toured with The Cheney Company during its beginning, but she married George Conner (1880-1941) on August 8th, 1914, and that ended her consistent touring. George was an oil well driller and they lived on a farm in Bentonville, Arkansas. In 1917, their son Hal Cheney Conner (1917-1999) was born. By 1930, Louise, George, and Hal lived in Hot Springs and George was a clerk for the US Post Office. Again, this is about the time that many members of the Cheney family moved to Hot Springs. In 1940, Gil was living with Louise and her family there. On September 14th, 1941, George died at the age of 60 and Louise died 9 years later on April 18th, 1960. She is buried in Hot Springs.

Pauline had the same start as her siblings and was living at home in Arkansas in 1910. In 1918, she married Robert Bonar (1888-1956) in St. Louis, Missouri, and they moved to Chicago by 1920. The two of them were lodgers and Robert is working as a draftsman for a packing company. We know from newspaper articles (see Maude’s main page) that Pauline had studied to be a chiropractor and was practicing in Chicago by 1924. In 1930, Maude was living with Robert and Pauline there and working as a stenographer. Right around the time that the Cheney’s all moved to Hot Springs, Pauline and Robert did as well, showing up there in 1935. The 1940 census shows her still practicing as a chiropractor and living with Robert. Then, on November 19th, 1941, she filed for divorce from Robert. Pauline wasn’t alone for long though- she married Walter Carr (1888-1975) on January 27th, 1943 in Ouachita, Arkansas. Walter was a railroad engineer for Missouri-Pacific Railroad and had one son, Walter Carr Jr. (1921-2010), from his first marriage. I think Pauline and Maude were particularly close, having toured together, lived together in Chicago, and then again in Arkansas. Pauline was also the informant on Maude’s death certificate in 1960. Walter died in 1975 and Pauline followed in 1978 at the age of 91. She is buried in Hot Springs.

Owen was living with the rest of his family in Bentonville in 1910 and working on the family farm. He went to fight in World War I and then married Anna Shoemaker in Portland, Maine on September 15th, 1921. He did tour with The Cheney Company before his marriage, but one of the newspaper articles reported that Anna didn’t like touring. Anna and Owen had one daughter, Susanne (1933-?), in Pennsylvania, and by 1935, they were living in Scranton. He lived in Scranton for many years and was the assistant manager of Prudential Life Insurance there. Owen died in Old Town, Florida, on November 7th, 1968, and Anna followed in 1971.

Marx was also working on the family farm in 1910 and his WWI draft card in 1917 reports his residence to still be Benton County, Arkansas. The story of how he met his future wife, Leonora Shinn (exact spelling is different in various sources), was told in Maude’s narrative because Marx and Leonora were both performers that toured with The Cheney Company extensively. In fact, Marx was their manager and a cellist. They married on June 10th, 1920, and are together in tour in the diary. In 1930 after The Cheney Company was no longer touring, their residence was listed as Noel, Missouri, and he is the proprietor of an “Amusement Park.” Actually, Marx and Leonora had purchased a resort there in 1925 and renamed it Shadow Lake. He brought in bands as entertainment and Shadow Lake was one of the filming locations for the movie Jesse James in 1938. The next few years are a little confusing because Marx and Leonora are listed together in Noel in the 1940 census running a “resort”, but Marx also married another woman- Mary Ann Brooks (1918-1982)- that same year. What happened to Leonora?! She died less than two years later and is buried in Hot Springs. I can’t find an obituary or any more information about this. I tell you what, though- it doesn’t look great that Marx seemingly divorced her less than two years before her death and then married a woman 27 years his junior right after. Anyway, in 1942, Mary Ann and Marx were in the Little Rock Arkansas City Directory together. He died in Gainesville, Florida on September 6th, 1970. Mary Ann died in Haiti on January 2nd, 1982. Her obituary says that she is still living in Florida at the time and provides no explanation as to why she was in Haiti or how she died.

Lastly, John Samuel, “Sam,” doesn’t seem to have toured with his siblings as much as the others did, but he is listed as an agent for the Chautauqua Lyceum Bureau in 1920 at the age of 19. Soon after that, he married Grace Ula Mahaffey (1900-1992) on July 30th, 1922 in Washington, Arkansas. When the rest of his family was moving to Hot Springs, he did as well and is listed as a chiropractor in the 1930 census- I wonder if he was working with Pauline? He continued in this profession in Hot Springs until at least 1957 when he showed up in the city directory there as a chiropractor. He died on April 5th, 1968 and is buried in Hot Springs.

Andrew “Volney” Sellers (1860- aft 1933) was a music teacher that the Cheney siblings had before they started their concert tours. Volney was married to Eva May (Bragg, 1856-1933) and they lived in many places, including Missouri, Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. I think that he was a talented musician- he was the first violin in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for a short time and he had a good reputation as a music teacher, but there honestly isn’t much information about Volney that I can find, aside from his mention in a Lyseum Magazine article about The Cheney Company and some ads that he used to run in the Joplin, Missouri newspaper for his music lessons. He isn’t really the story here, though. The real story involved his wife and the woman that I think is responsible for the name inscription under Maude’s in the diary- Eva Gertrude Sanders MacChesney.

Eva was born to William Giles Bragg (1810-1888) and Frances Tully (1818-1878) and she had 11 brothers and sisters. One of those sisters was named Sue Constance (1861-1889); Sue was married to Robert Sanders (1846-1929) and they had five children- Conrad (1880-1884), Robert (1881-1947), George (1883-1896), Eva Gertrude (1886-1972), and William (1889-1889). Sue died tragically at the age of 28, I think due to childbirth because the youngest son, William, also died that year, but this is just speculation. Her husband, Robert, remarried less than two years later and his surviving children were never with him again. Instead, they went to live with Eva and Volney. In Eva’s obituary, it states that she and Volney never had children of their own, but took in her sister’s children after her sister died. By the time that Maude was studying with Volney in 1905, Gertrude would have been about 19 and Robert would have been about 23 and they were living with Volney and Eva.

Gertrude married Frederick Leon MacChesney (1878-1951) in 1906 and they had one child- Constance (1923-2012), named after Gertrude’s mother. Fred was a teacher, then principal, then superintendent of a school district in Arkansas and was a prominent and well-respected man. He died in 1951, leaving Gertrude until her death in 1973 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

So, here is why this Gertrude is my best guess for who signed Maude’s diary under her name. I admit that the evidence is slim, but this is the only Gertrude that I cou;d find in Maude’s history. Here you go… I noticed that the same handwriting is present in a few places in the dairy. For example, some of the city names are written in what looks like Gertrude’s hand, as well as some of the addresses in the back. Who would have knowledge of The Company’s travels and the names of people they knew on the road? It had to be someone that traveled with them or that was associated with The Company in some way. I also noticed that the name and address of “Mrs. A J Sellers” was written more than once in the back, so I started there. When I found Volney and Eva’s information, there was a picture of Eva and Gertrude after Gertrude’s mother had died. It seems that Eva and Gertrude were close. Given the important role that Volney played in The Company’s establishment, I think it makes sense that Maude would have gotten to know Gertrude well during her time with him.

Lon was born in Gallatin, Missouri on June 5th, 1893. His parents were Early Madison Johnson (1848-1927) and Lockie (Oxford, 1855-1944) and he had seven siblings. His father was a farmer and Lon helped out on the farm in his childhood. In 1915, the family was living in Paola, Kansas, and this is where they would stay for a long time. Lon’s early career as a music teacher in Kansas City, Missouri and how he was hired by The Cheney Company was told in Maude's narrative. In 1930, his residence was in Emporia, Kansas, and he was listed as a “musician and actor” in a “traveling circus” in the federal census. I found newspaper articles about him until 1928 that say he is still performing, so this is confirmation that he is still performing in 1930. He moved to New York for a period after that and then in 1946 at the age of 53, he married Alta Richards (1897-1992) in Kansas. The pair moved to Tucson, Arizona sometime before 1959. He died there on August 5th, 1965. In his obituary, it says, “Mr. Johnson was a nationally known music educator.” After reading the glowing reviews of his musical ability and work as a composer and knowing about his success in show business, it is interesting that he is known as a music educator in his obituary… it is true that he was teaching music in Kansas City before he joined The Cheney Company and used that to propel him into show business success. Did he return to teaching afterwards? Or is it that the chautauqua and lyceum movements were known as public music education movements and he is remembered for his involvement in that? Alta died in Tucson in 1992.