Maude Helen Cheney
Maude wrote her diary in 1923. She wrote “Bentonville, Arkansas” on the inside of the cover page, but she doesn’t spend much time at home that year. She was a performer that traveled all over the US and Canada.
Introduction
Maude Helen Cheney, along with many of her siblings and other performers, made up The Cheney Company- a band of traveling musicians that criss-crossed the US, Canada, and Mexico in the 1920s. She was an accomplished violinist and played with the Company for many years. In 1923, Maude kept a diary of their travels together, her experiences on the road, and her romantic relationship with the Company’s pianist, Lon Johnson.
Maude was born in Rome, Georgia, on July 28th, 1895, to 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. They had 6 children- Louise (1884-1950), Pauline (1887-1978), Owen (1889-1968), Marx (1891-1970), Maude, and John (1901-1968). By the time John is born, the family is living in Bentonville, Arkansas, and this will remain their home for a long time. (See Maude’s People page for information about all the siblings and other important people in her story).
In an interview that Marx gave to the Lyceum Magazine in January 1923, the same year that the diary was written, he said, “I’ve been interested in music since I can remember. So have my brothers and sisters. Both our parents loved music and I remember they were playing and singing a great deal while we ‘kids’ were growing up. It isn’t strange, therefore, that we all are interested in the production of harmony” (pg. 28). Marx would become the manager of The Cheney Company. He, along with his wife Leonora (Shinn, 1895-1942. Exact spelling is different in various sources), Maude, Lon, and both Pauline and Owen at times, make up the performers in the Company in 1923.
The same article described how Gilbert and Lula wanted “the kids” (Maude continues to call her sibling group “The Kids” in her diary) to study music from a young age and that the family played music together growing up. In the spring of 1905, they “organized the family orchestra” under the instruction of Volney J. Sellers, the first violin in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for a number of years. Marx played the cello, Pauline played the piano, and Maude played the violin.
In 1912, the group signed their first contract, traveling under the C.A. Coons Lyceum Circuit. They were part of two education movements called the lyceum movement and the chautauqua movement. The lyceum movement was started in 1826 by a teacher named Josiah Holbrook in Millbury, Massachusetts. It was an organized adult education program that gave people the opportunity to hear debates, lectures, and music, and promoted the public education system. Some of the well-known speakers of lyceum circuits included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Susan B. Anthony. After the Civil War, lyceums were very popular and blended into another movement- the chautauqua movement. This movement was popular in the late 19th century and was just wrapping up in the 1920s when The Cheney Company was touring. The chautauqua spread throughout rural America and brought entertainment and culture for the whole community including musicians, speakers, preachers, and teachers. President Theodore Roosevelt was even quoted as saying that Chautauqua was “the most American thing in America.” Both movements were meant to bring education and entertainment to people that might not have otherwise had the opportunity and The Cheney Company toured with both.
The Cheney Company’s tour in 1912 didn’t go well, however, as the “young folks played very heavy music.” After this, the group struck out on their own from Sellers, and, after including Miss Helen Hanner in 1913, they toured another full season. After some somewhat successful years, Hanner and the oldest sister, Louise, got married in 1914 and left the company. By 1915, Pauline, Maude, Marx, and Owen were still playing and touring together. Then, Owen left to fight in WWI and married upon his return home, although he would join the group for a few performances every so often.
Needing another consistent member of the Company, Marx went to the Dillenbeck Dramatic Arts School in Kansas City, Missouri, looking for talent. There, the head of the school gave Marx the name of Leonora Shinn, who had been a “reader and whistler” with another company for some years. Leonora signed a year’s contract with The Cheney Company and, by the end of the year, according to Marx, “she had done such wonderful work that I went wild and invested all my earnings of several years in concert work with a jeweler in Springfield, MO. This made the company all Cheney’s again.”
In 1918, Pauline left constantly touring with the company to get married as well. Still, Owen and Pauline are with the Company for at least some of the shows in 1923. Without Pauline and Owen consistently with them, though, the group was left without a pianist. Marx brought on Lon Johnson, who had been a piano teacher at Kansas City, to fix this gap in performers. While I didn’t find this information anywhere else, I know from the diary that Maude and Lon were in a romantic relationship by 1923. An article from The Olathe Register from October 5th, 1923, states that Lon is the “only new member in the Company,” so he must have just joined in advance of “their winter Concert Tour,” which was set to begin in Wayne, Nebraska a few days later. We join the Company in the diary shortly after this article was written on January 1st, 1923.
The Diary
When we catch up with the Company, they are celebrating New Years Eve in New York City. Maude says that they “celebrated in a dungeon. Had a good time tho.”
Maude’s diary was a joy to read and not just because she lives an adventure-filled life. She is honest and funny, high-spirited and sweet. She loves her family and Lon. While many Diary Writers consistently comment on the weather, she consistently comments on the city they are in, the quality of the hotel, her opinion on their most recent audience, and usually includes funny anecdote from her day. Maude is 28 years old and has been a traveling musician for years now. She expresses herself with the self-confidence that it must take to do her job and the seasoned attitude of someone that knows their trade. Years of travel like this sound exhausting to me, but Maude is almost always lively and happy.
The Company is in a new city everyday and almost never takes a break. The only days they miss are because they are traveling and the very occasional day off. Take a look at the transcript; she starts every entry with the city they are in- Pottstown, Pennsylvania; Scio, Ohio; Lewisburg, West Virginia; Marion, Kentucky; South Bend, Indiana; Flint, Michigan, etc etc. This tour will take them from the Midwest to Canada, and then to New England. At the end of the diary, she wrote down names and addresses of people she would like to remember, as people often do. I usually don’t record these, but in her case, I have included them because it is interesting to see the number and variety of the people she includes. They give evidence of her exciting life.
As I said, along the way, Maude is honest and funny. Here is a snippet of just three days where we see her humor and equally positive and negative appraisals of her experiences:
January 9
Roaring Spgs, PA
The damndest audience I ever appeared before. Left early, 2:20am. Hope to never see the place again.
January 10
Glen Campbell, PA
Lon took caster oil + broke a glass. Nice audience. Funny Prof. 10,000 miles to walk getting any place.
January 11
Rossiter, PA
Dumb audience- nice minister. Long ways from Sta. Warm rooms. Onion for supper.
I find her honesty and candidness is fun to read because it makes me feel like I’m there with her. Of course some hotels might be awful and some might be lovely, some audiences might be “dumb” and some might be great. Her honest appraisal of her experiences helps it to feel real.
Throughout January, they travel from New York, into Pennsylvania, and then to Ohio and West Virginia. They stay in hotels most of the time, but also stay in private homes. Maude starts to mention Lon right away, first saying that, “Lon + I had close quarters,” on January 14th and then, “All the girls wanted to marry Lon + Marx” on January 29th with some other smaller mentions along the way. Lon, whose full name is Leonidas Johnson (1893-1965), is 30 years old and a composer in addition to being a talented pianist. They practice and write music together between performances and it is clear quickly that they are in the beginning stages of a romance. As we read on, Maude grows to like him more and more.
Traveling is fun for the group, but difficult as well. They sometimes have issues with the hotels, their trunks don’t always make the journey on time, and members of the group get sick. They all get tired and sore from traveling on trains and leaving places in the middle of the night to make their next performance.
February 5
Bladensburg, O.
Got into Utica to drive to B. + they bo-hunked us. Didn’t play- stayed in Utica + cussed + steamed.
Lon gets sick in early February and takes a few days to recover. During this time, Maude’s language about him gets more affectionate. She is clearly beginning to have stronger feelings for him. I think it makes sense that she would- he is in the same profession that she is and, if the newspapers at the time are to be believed, he is a talented musician and composer. Plus, traveling and performing with each other must be fun and serve to cement their feelings for each other.
February 14
Basil, O
Was in Columbus all day. Nice audience. Awful blizz and awful room. I liked Lon awful well there.
February 15
Savannah, O
Wild day- fast train wouldn’t stop. Ger*** to ca** at ten oclock. Mr + Mrs Smith are so nice. I love Lon still more + more.
February 16
Dalton, O
I stayed in Parlor. Dear little sweet Lon froze. Nice hotel + audience. Marx + S were comfortable.
On February 23rd, they play for the “beloved Ladies Club,” as Maude described them, in South Bend, Indiana. The South Bend Tribune ran a story on the 22nd to announce the performance and it is here that we learn that the line up includes four of the Cheney siblings, “Miss Pauline Cheney, soprano, Maude Cheney, contralto, Marx Cheney, tenor and Owen Cheney, basso,” and that they sing in addition to play instruments. On the 24th, the same paper ran another story about them, including a full description of their program (see picture) and that they played for 200 people!
After South Bend, the Company stops in Chicago for a few days. Since studying music there as children, Pauline has married a man named Robert Bonar (1888-1956) and is living there. “The Kids” have a “big, big time talking + talking.” Then, Michigan is their next destination. Most of the group goes to Lansing, but Lon is off to Detroit to presumably perform alone there, and they reunite just a few days later. On March 6th, Maude calls Lon by a nickname for the first time- “Ole Tut”- when she says, “I love Ole Tut.” It’s getting serious… Lon leaves the group again and she mentions that she misses him two days in a row:
March 9
Milton Center, O
Return date. Lovely audience Sat a.m.- Lon left his Teddy* + went to Toledo + I miss my ole Tut.
March 10
Open
Traveled all day getting to Cleveland. Went to a good show. Got to bed late. Tut was in Toledo. Missed him terribly.
AND THEN they share a room together! Is this scandalous for 1923?
March 22
Springville, O
Nice hotel. Lon + I had a suite together + was so terribly nice. Lovely audience. Left early.
Through March and the beginning of April, they travel to Michigan and Ohio, and end up in Chicago to visit Pauline again. After, they “parted for home,” and Maude traveled back to Arkansas to spend a few weeks with her mother and father. She barely writes in the diary while she’s home and I’m not sure if her siblings went as well, but I think so. Across the days of April 16th-21st, she writes, “Louise was so good to us while home.” Louise is the eldest sibling and lives in Arkansas too.
Maude is home until May 13th (“hated to leave all the folks. Sad parting”) and then travels to Paola, Kansas, where Lon is from. She visits his parents there, commenting that she, “had a fine time + sure do like them all.” On May 16th, they are on the road again, but this time they are headed up to Canada on the train. On May 17th, they change trains in St. Paul, they are in Canada on the 18th, and the Rockies on the 19th.
May 19
In the Rockies. Wonderful. I’m beside myself. Can’t get enough to eat.
May 20
Mama’s birthday
Arrived in Vancouver at 8:30 A.M.- Wonderful town. Flowers beautiful.
In Canada, they meet up with the Chilliwack Chautauqua in British Columbia. The entries are the same as before, with comments about the audiences, hotels, and venues. Maude and Lon continue to spend time together:
June 6
Ferrie B.C.
Valley in nets*. Rotten audience. Lon + I had a nice walk. I love him more.
June 14
Vulean, Alta
Long tiresome drive. Mr. Weisstown gave him the cheering* gum*. Lon is the best little thing ever.
Then, on July 5th, Maude and Lon have a fight and a bad one, apparently:
July 5
Youngtown, Sask
Lon + I had a fuss- our first one + a bad one. Made up + I still love him terribly.
After the fight, she writes a normal entry on July 6th, but then only writes the city names in her entries from July 7th- August 13th. The last entry reads, “Rocky Mt. House, Alta,” on August 13th. I hate to attribute everything to a guy, but it seems like her fight with Lon ended her relationship with the diary. She quits writing any comments right after and then quits all together in August. It isn’t uncommon, in my experience, for Diary Writers to lose interest in their diaries at some point, but this is abrupt. She goes from happily writing every single day to not at all so quickly and right after her fight with Lon.
That isn’t the last thing in the diary, though. In the Memoranda section, there is a story written in handwriting that is very similar to Maude’s:
Memoranda
Do you remember at Miss Lehighs town Lordminster how much candy we eat and do you remember how you belched rite out on the platform. Jimmie was there and it was cold and rainy. We had been up all nite and you slept in Miss Cp’s room- so dirty. You even washed your face there and in the p.m. you left this diary back in the dressing rooms while you played “Farewell to Cucullains”
From the entry, it seems that Maude left the diary out while she was performing and someone that had access to the dressing room sneakily wrote this story for her to find later. “Farewell to Cucullain” or “Londonderry Air” is an Irish folksong first published in 1922 and played on string instruments. The Cheney Company played in Lloydminster, Alberta, on June 26th, 1923. Was this Lon or one of her siblings?
After this entry in the Memoranda section, there are many names and addresses of people that I have included in the transcript. Some are in Maude’s writing and some aren’t, meaning she probably handed these people the diary to write their names and addresses themselves. Still, I think that Maude stopped writing in the diary on August 13th.
After
After Maude stops writing, the Cheney Company continues to travel and perform. I only know this from finding sporadic news articles- Lansing, Michigan, on September 21st; Oak Harbor, Ohio, on September 29th; Rushville, Indiana, on October 9th; Crestline, Ohio, on November 1st; and Northfield, Vermont, on November 13th. Lon has been with them all this time because on February 14th, 1924, an article in the Johnson County Democrat from Olathe, Kansas, writes about the group when they travel to stay with Leonora’s family there. In the article, we learn that Pauline had been traveling with them again, but must go back to her chiropractor practice in Chicago and that Lon also had to leave the group because of a combination of food poisoning and lead poisoning, which “made him very ill and affected his eyesight so that he has been compelled to stay for weeks in a dark room.” Poor Lon! The article concludes with the Company’s next stops, including “Old Mexico” for their summer tour, ending in Vancouver. Indeed, in an article from Butte, Montana, on March 12th, 1924, and one from Olathe, Kansas on April 2nd, 1924, Lon is not mentioned. Then, Lon is back with the Company by December 10th, 1924.
What’s more, Maude and Lon do not go on to marry or make their relationship official in any way. Lon continues to be successful in show business, though. In 1928, I found an article from Napa, California, advertising a performance by Lon. This article refers to him as a radio artist from WLS at Chicago, as well as a composer and pianist. It seems that Lon has made a solo career on the radio and continues to perform. Also in 1928, an article from Casper, Wyoming calls him “the Famous Radio Broadcaster” and “the radio man of 1928,” when they advertised his upcoming chautauqua performance. To read more about the rest of Lon’s life, please see Maude’s People page.
By 1930, Maude had left show business. She is living with her sister, Pauline, in Chicago and is listed as a stenographer at a publishing company. On September 20th of the next year, Maude married John Edward Elliot (1886-1946).
John Edward Elliot… John was born on May 12th, 1886 in Burt County, Nebraska. His father, James Elliot (1854-1941) was a farm laborer and his mother, Patience (Johnson, 1854-1934) took care of their home and 11 children. In 1910, John married Tacy Collett (1876-1954) and he worked as a laborer. She was 10 years older than he and was working as a matron (of what, I don’t know). After they get married, they quickly have their three children- Evelyn Leone (1912-2011), Doris (1913-2008), and Marvin Ellis (1915-1978), and Tacy then stayed home with them.
Here’s where things get strange… In 1916, while Maude was still under the instruction of the first violinist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, John was getting himself into legal trouble. Between 1910 and 1916, John seems to have taken a job as a cashier at a bank in Decatur, Nebraska. In a news article from Clearwater, Nebraska on May 26th, John is accused of taking deposits from customers, not giving them a receipt, and then claiming that their deposits were personal loans to him or that the money had just disappeared. If that sounds confusing to you, it was to the state bank examiners as well, who were called in to investigate these claims. One complainant even went to John’s home to demand their cash be returned. It turns out that John was also the principal stockholder in the bank, making things seem even more suspicious. The Bank, Farmer’s Bank, went under around this time as well.
Almost two years later on February 22nd, 1918, John appeared in district court to plead to a formal charge alleging eight criminal violations of banking laws. The paper reports that the state is looking to impose a “severe penalty” on John if he should be found guilty and gives more detail about what he was accused of doing- embezzlement, making a false report to the state banking board, loaning bank funds to himself in a manner forbidden by law, and making false ledger entries. Unfortunately, I can’t find any information about how the case went or if he was found guilty.
Sometime before 1920, though, John became a real estate “dealer” and was living with his family in Rosalie, Nebraska in that year. He is listed in the same way- same place, same profession, and same family members- in 1930. Then, in 1931, he suddenly married Maude.
How did John and Maude meet? In the article from 1918, it states that John had been in Hot Springs, Arkansas with his sick brother-in-law as he was seeking treatment. Theodore Johnson is Tacy’s sister's husband, so the two are actually brothers-in-law through marriage to two sisters. This is confusing to me too because Theodore also lived in Nebraska, so I don’t know why the two of them would have been in Arkansas for treatment. There are possible reasons, of course… a specialty clinic for whatever was ailing Theodore, for example, but I can’t find any evidence for why. Also, despite the paper claiming that Theodore is very ill, he lived until 1955. Another possibility is that one of John’s brothers, James (1893-1968), was living in Evanston, Illinois in 1930; Evanston is a northern suburb of Chicago, so perhaps Maude and he knew each other. James also ended up in Arkansas sometimes after 1942.
I can’t find any evidence of divorce records between John and Tacy, but that isn’t uncommon. In my experience, divorce papers are sometimes the most difficult kind of record to find. It doesn’t seem that this divorce was particularly harmonious, though. Tacy continues to live in Nebraska and in 1940 is listed as widowed on the census even though John lived until 1946; Tacy was living with her eldest daughter, Leone, and her husband at the time. In the Lincoln Nebraska City Directory in 1945, Tacy is listed as a cook. She died in 1954 in Ohio and there is no mention of John in her obituary. There is other evidence that he was no longer in his children’s lives after he married Maude as well. In Ellis’ marriage announcement in 1938, he is described as “son of Mrs. Tacy A. Elliot,” with no mention of his father. Of their three children, I can only find an obituary for Doris and it states, “Doris was raised by her mother, Tacy Elliot, in Rosalie, Neb.” Doris would have been 17 or 18 years old when John married Maude, and yet there is no mention of him at all in her obituary either.
John died in Little Rock, Arkansas, on October 5th, 1946 at the age of 60. Maude continues to live in Hot Springs; in 1949, Maude was in the city directory there. She is listed as a Manager and the directory notes that she is the widow of John Elliot. I’m not sure how Maude spent the time between 1949 and 1960, but unfortunately, the next record I have of her is her death certificate from October 24th, 1960. Her name is listed as “Helen Elliot” (strange after knowing her as Maude Cheney during all of my research), but her father and mother are both listed correctly and her sister, Pauline, is listed as the Informant. The death certificate states that her profession was a Real Estate Broker (just like John) and the cause of death was primary carcinoma of the breast; Maude was 65 years old. She is buried in Hot Spring, Arkansas.
Mysteries:
Who is Gertrude?! In all my research on Maude’s family and the newspaper articles that I have read, I only found one Gertrude that might have been in Maude’s life, but the evidence is scarce. To read more about my thoughts on this, please look at the Sellers Family tab on Maude’s People page.
2. The Bank Book: When I buy a diary from a seller, I sometimes watch what that seller puts up for sale soon after. It isn’t uncommon for additional diaries from the same Diary Writer or other materials, like pictures or autograph books, to come up for sale. I won’t get on my soapbox about how I feel when people split up diary collections, but I do my absolute best to keep diaries and other materials from the same person or family together.
After I bought Maude’s diary, this bank book came up for sale from the same seller. It is clearly connected to Maude- the “shoppe” that the account belongs to is under her name and it is from a town just 17 miles from Bentonville. The dates in the book are from April 2nd, 1925 to December 29th, 1925. What kind of shop might this have been? Even more interesting is that the shop is referred to as both the “Maud Cheney Shop” or the “Cheney-Johnson Shoppe.” My best guess is that Maude and Lon opened a shop of some kind in 1925 in Springdale, Arkansas. I know that Lon was still traveling with The Cheney Company around then, so it might have been true! I can’t find any information online or in old newspapers about the shop and the entries in the bank book aren’t helpful. This would be such an interesting addition to her story, if I could only find the information!
News Articles Referenced:
A Booster For the Cheneys. (1924, April 24). The Johnson County Democrat, p. 2.
Chautauqua. (1923, June 13). The Edmonton Bulletin, p. 3.
Chautauqua Program For the Evening of May 17, 1928. (1928, May 16). Napa Journal, p. 5.
Cheney Company Pleases. (1924, December 10). The Oneonta Star, p. 5.
Cheney Concert. (1923, February 24). The South Bend Tribune, p. 5.
Cheney Concert Company. (1923, June 22). The Olds Gazette, p. 8.
Cheney Concert Company is Coming. (1923, September 29). The Ottawa County Exponent, p. 6.
Cheney Concert Company Starts Out. (1922, October 5). The Olathe Register, p. 1.
Decatur Bank- Cashier Was General Manager. (1916, May 26). Clearwater Record, p. 2.
Elliot to Plead to Eight Counts. (1918, February 22). The Lincoln Star, p. 12.
Famous Radio Broadcaster Appearing in Person. (1928, July 22). Casper Star-Tribune, p. 3.
First Entertainment Thursday Evening. (1923, November 13). News and Advertiser, p. 1.
First Number on Mays Course Friday. (1923, October 9). The Daily Republican, p. 18.
Gives Entertainment. (1923, February 22). The South Bend Tribune, p. 5.
Hear The Cheney Concert Company. (1923, November 1). Crestline Advocate, p. 7.
Local Artist Honored. (1924, April 2). The Olathe Register, p. 4.
Lon Johnson, Appearing This Week at Gladmer Theater is Noted Composer. (1923, September 21). Lansing State Journal, p. 15.
Musical Family Given Much Trouble by Cupid. (1923, January). The Lyceum Magazine, p. 28.
No Title. (1924, February 14). The Johnson County Democrat, p. 1.
No Title. (1924, March 12). The Butte Miner, p. 7.
The Chilliwack Chautauqua. (1923, May 10). The Chilliwack Progress, p. 2.
“White House Organ Chimes” To Be Interesting Concert Feature. (1923, March 15). Springfield Journal, p. 4.