Daughter of Elam Cheney and Harriet Edgheill. She was Elam's 31st child and Harriet's seventh. When the family moved to Pinedale, their home being a gathering place for the young people, she met John Lazelle Fish son of Joseph Fish and Mary Campbell Steele. John being 19 years of age when his family moved to Pinedale, felt he could provide for a wife through his toil and efforts so he proposed to Melvina and they agreed to the trials and joys of living together so the marriage was planned. She married John Lazelle Fish at the age of 14 on 7 September 1888 in Snowflake, Arizona.

Melvina and John L. made their first home in Mortensen Wash named after the people who were first there. It later was called Perchon, after the horses that were raised there. It became a part of Pinedale when the ward was organized. Their home was made of sawed logs and it was located about 200 yards from Melvina's parents who lived on the same side of the street. There was a row of currant bushes 200 yards long dividing the two places. The homes were small. The water used was from a well situated close to Elam's home. The water was very cold and clear. Drinking water was drawn by a bucket for both homes. The berries furnished employment for all the kids in the summer and gave the two families all their jams, jellies and preserves they needed.

Melvina being just 14 years of age when married, liked young girl things, nice clothes, jewelry etc. She was musically inclined and played the piano. She was beautiful to look at and she had beautiful hair. She was one of the best dressed women in the county at that time. Melvina was
asked to sing at the dedication of the Navajo County Courthouse at Holbrook. She wore all white and stood on the platform built for the occasion and looked and sounded like an angel as she sang.

Melvina was a good seamstress and was always busy sewing. She made beautiful clothes. She was a good cook and made lots of cakes and pies and good things to eat. She took in boarders most of her married life. She was a very clean housekeeper and fussy about the appearance of the house. She could work like a man. She could run a hand cradle of wheat, cut it with a scythe and help thrash it. She milked cows, fed pigs and chopped wood whenever there wasn't a man around to do the work. She was kind to her children but kept to herself alot. She would go in her room and read or go off to practice her piano.

Melvina was 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighed 147 pounds, light brown hair and blue eyes and died at the young age of 29 of typhoid fever leaving her seven children motherless: Mahonri Lazelle, John Elam, Karl Joseph, Julia, Hamilton, Eva and Ambrose.