Pipestone-Ramsey County MINNESOTA Biographies.....Nancy Cheney August 2 1889 - November 28 1972
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File contributed for Minnesota Biographies Project by:
Kenneth Smith ksmith22@mn.rr.com March 19, 2005, 1:39 am

Author: Ken Smith

BIOGRAPHY OF NANCY LAURA CHENEY

Nancy was born on a farm in Troy Township, Pipestone County, 
Minnesota, on August 2, 1889. She was the oldest daughter of Edwin 
Cheney and Esther Sweet. John Garfield Sweet, Nancy’s uncle, married 
Zada Barton in 1905. She was the oldest sister of Ray Barton. Young Ray 
had a summer job on the farm of Bertram Sweet, another of Nancy’s 
uncles, during his high school years. During those summers he must 
have courted and won Nancy’s heart. Ray and Nancy were married in 
Pipestone in 1911, and farmed for a short time before moving to Mankato, 
Minnesota. 

After Ray graduated from business school in 1914, Ray and Nancy, who 
were now the partents of a toddler, with another child on the way, moved 
to Trosky, a small town near Pipestone, where they built a small house. 
Ray managed the hotel, barbered, and had a cream station, meaning he 
bought milk from farmers and resold it to local dairies. Three daughters 
were born to the couple in Trosky. In 1919, they sold their house in Trosky 
to Ray's parents and moved to Worthington, Minnesota, then to Jackson, 
Minnesota in 1923. Ray operated cream stations in both towns. In 1925, 
the family moved to St. Paul and Ray became a traveling salesman. In 
1929, the year their eighth child was born, the economy collapsed and the 
Great Depression began. During the Thirties, Ray took whatever work he 
could find to support his family, he worked for the City of St. Paul, delivered 
baked goods and sold Watkins products.

Nancy and Ray spent nearly fifty years in St. Paul, where they raised their 
eight children. Besides being a full-time mother, Nancy liked to write 
stories for her children and paint with water colors. During her later life, 
Nancy developed heart problems, and was one of the first recipients of a 
cardiac pacemaker. After their children were grown, Ray and Nancy lived 
for a few years with their daughter and son-in-law, Berneil and Warren 
Miller, then moved to the Mt. Airy Apartments in St. Paul. Nancy and Ray 
were married more than sixty years. Nancy died in St. Paul on November 
28, 1972. Ray lived for a little more than a year more. They are both buried 
in Union Cemetery on the East Side of St. Paul.

Information for this biography from the privately published book, "The 
Bartons" by Ray Barton Jr.; personal recollection of Rose barton Kyllo and 
Pipestone County Historical Society.

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