Emeline Lewis

Emeline Lewis was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1841 to Winslow and Emeline Lewis. Her father was a physician. Emeline and Arthur Cheney (1837-1878) were married on October 9, 1860 in Boston. They spent time in that city for Arthur's work as a representative of the Cheney Silk Mills, and Emeline largely lived there after Arthur's death in 1878.

According to "Joy is the Banner: The Life of Ethel M. Cheney Thorne," by Olive Floyd and Samuel Thorne, Emeline and Arthur had no children of their own. When a family friend died shortly after giving birth to a baby girl, the Cheneys took her in. The baby was born Mary Eliza Lee and renamed Ethel Mary Cheney. The adoption was completed two weeks after Arthur's death.