Cheney P., son of Cheney Whitney, was born in Seneca, June 10, 1836. He attended the public schools there and the Phelps Union School and the Oswego Business College. He then engaged in farming, and in 1872 purchased his present farm on which for many years he raised thoroughbred horses, cattle and hogs. In later years he has made fruit culture a specialty and has taken first prizes on fruit at all the county fairs of this section. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church of Seneca Castle and for forty years has been elder. He is a member of Seneca Castle Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, and has been master and chaplain. He has been excise commissioner of the town of Phelps and trustee of the school district in which he lives. In politics he is a Republican. He has been a member of the Ontario Agricultural Society for forty years, and served two years as president and he is a member of the State Agricultural Society.
He married in 1861 Mary C. Chapman, daughter of John and Margaret Chapman. Children : Margaret, born April 7, 1864, married William F. Chapman; Almon, April 15, 1867: Mary Matilda, November 11, 1870, a teacher of deaf mutes in New York City.