O. Augusta (Olive Augusta) Cheney

Born Olive Augusta Alger in 1833, she was the sister of novelist Horatio Alger Jr. and later became Olive Augusta Alger Cheney after marrying Amos Parker Cheney. She wrote under the name O. Augusta Cheney, and her work appears in nineteenth-century publications and collections preserved by Project Gutenberg.

Beyond her writing, she became a prominent civic voice in Natick, Massachusetts. Historical accounts credit her with founding the local branch of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Natick Women’s Suffrage League, and with pushing repeatedly for women’s voting rights in town affairs.

That mix of literary work and determined activism makes her especially interesting today. She belongs to the group of nineteenth-century women whose writing was closely tied to public reform, and whose local efforts helped build the broader movement for women’s rights.