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"When the last person speaks your name, that's when you are gone."

There are members in every family who have no one to carry on their life story. Perhaps they didn't marry, or never had children, or saddest of all the children didn't live to adulthood. It is with these relatives in mind that I'm going to journal from time to time on a family member who doesn't have a DIRECT descendant to remember them.

This week I've been working on my maternal grandfather's family. Grandfather Jonathan had two brothers, Charles and Henry, and one sister, Mary Caroline.  

Grandfather Jonathan Plowman Cheney, was the youngest child in his family. He married Sadie (Sarah) Jamison and they had three children, eleven grandchildren, eighteen great grandchildren and at least 13 gg grandchildren. Although the youngest growing up, he was the second of the siblings to pass away.

Charles Murray Cheney, the oldest of the siblings, married and had three daughters. I believe he had only 2 granddaughters and there are several great grandchildren as well. He lived the longest of all his sister and brothers.

I was able to glean several interesting facts about Henry. Mom had only been able to tell me...Henry had been the brother of my grandfather, never married and died and was buried at Salt Lake City. 

Henry Edward, was the second child of Emily Caroline Plowman and Gilead Pickett Cheney.
*He was born in Sangamon Co., Illinois on 6 February, 1864.
*At six years of age he was attending school while his father owned and ran a drygoods store in Virden, Illinois. This store was in partnership with Gilead's father-in-law, Jonathan Plowman.
*By the time Henry was fifteen, both he and Charles were working on the farm his father owned in Talkington, Sangamon Co., Illinois.
*Between 1880 and 1885 the family moved to Arapahoe Co., Colorado.
*In the year 1886 Harry lived with his father and brother Charles M. on Clarkson St., Denver, Colorado. The three were working in the stone business (family owned I believe).
*By 1888 he was still living in Denver but had left the family business and was working as a brakeman for a railroad.
 *On 1 August 1896 Henry registered to vote in California. At the time he was working for the SP Railroad in Los Angeles, California. This registration provides me with the most physical information I have on Great Uncle Henry. He and my grandfather were the same height, 5'8". Henry had a fair complexion, gray eyes and brown hair. He resided and mail was to be sent to SP Co. River Station #4, and he was able to read the Constitution and write his name.
*The 1900 census shows the family and Henry was residing in Boulder CO., Colorado, Henry was living on his own and resided in a rooming house,  working for McArthur Bros Construction Co. as a Railroad Engineer. At the time the company was working on the construction of the Dam for the future Barker Meadow Reservoir.

"Barker Reservoir is a water supply reservoir in the Colorado Front Range located near the town of Nederland, Colorado in southwestern Boulder County. Barker Dam provides water to a downstream hydro-electirc power power generating facility, and its reservoir provides water to the city of Boulder Colorado.  In 1908, the Central Colorado Power Company began construction of Barker Dam to provide electricity to nearby mining communities and the city of Denver. Completed in 1910, the dam and Barker Reservoir were named for the owner of the land, Mrs. Hannah Barker. Mrs. Barker refused to sell the land to the utility but was eventually forced to do so through a process similar to the contemporary legal procedure of eminent domain. The dam was constructed by hauling concrete and other materials along a specially constructed spur of the Switzerland Trail narrow-gauge railroad."  Wikipedia

"While construction activities were under way in the canyon, and for several years after the plant began operations, the only road through Glenwood Canyon was the primitive Taylor State Road constructed on the north side of the river between 1899 and 1902. It was narrow and rough and was closed to all traffic through most of the winter and during periods of high water in the spring. The condition of this road forced Central Colorado Power to bring in most of their equipment, food and supplies by railroad and transport it across to the north shore on an overhead cable." History Shoshone Hydroelectric Plant Complex


*1911 Henry moved back to Denver and was residing at 1227 19th, Denver Colorado with no occupation listed. 
*After a two day stay in the County Hospital, Farmers Ward, Salt Lake Co., Utah, Henry died of tuberculosis on 15 Nov 1914, at 10p.m. He had been suffering with tuberculosis for a year.
* On 20 Nov 1914 he was buried in the Salt Lake City, City Cemetery Plat S, Block 47, Number 16, Number 2, East tier.
* His death certificate states he had been living in Utah for 4 years at the time of his death.

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