Cheever Street
From Worcester Activist wiki
In 1841, when Henry T. Cheever was 27, he took a trip for his health around Cape Horn to the Hawaiian Islands as a passenger on a whaling ship. In Hawaii, he joined a fellow student from Bowdoin College who was a missionary.
Cheever on his travels may have met a 22-year-old sailor who served before the mast. He was Herman Melville, who later wrote a book about the whales he met. He called it “Moby Dick.”
At Bowdoin College, Cheever studied French and German under an instructor who wrote poetry. His name was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. After graduation in 1834, Cheever went to France and Spain with a younger brother, who was in ill health. They spent a Winter with an uncle, United States consul at Malaga.
When Cheever came back he taught in Louisiana, spent a year at Andover Theological Seminary, then entered Bangor Theological Seminary. As a result of his travels, Cheever wrote two books.
He was ordained as a Congregational minister June 4, 1847, and held pastorates in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut before coming to Worcester.
His father, who died in 1819, had learned the printer’s trade in Worcester. In the 1700’s, Worcester was the leading center of printing and publishing in the United States.
Rev. Mr. Cheever took an active role against slavery. He was secretary of an Anti-Slavery Society from 1859 to 1864. He wrote vast quantities of articles on religious subjects for periodicals.
He also wrote a book about Ichabod Washburn, his brother-in-law who built and mainly supported Summer Street Mission Chapel of which Cheever was pastor.
His brother, Rev. George B. Cheever, achieved a reputation as a crusading reformer.
After a short illness, Worcester’s Rev. Mr. Cheever died on Feb. 13, 1897. Cheever Street, which honors him, runs from Chelsea street west to Woodward street. It was named in 1872.
The core of this article comes from A History of Your City Streets.
