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Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The Big Bend Country, embracing
Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties, State of Washington",
published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.
WILLIAM R. CUNNINGHAM, a real
estate dealer and negotiator of loans, is a native of Paris, Bourbon county,
Kentucky, born April 14, 1834. It has fallen to the lot of but few
men to have been associated, directly and indirectly, with so many of the
great men of his time as was the subject of this sketch. His father,
John Cunningham, was a native Virginian, born in Hardy county, whose ancestry
included some of the original settlers of the Old Dominion State.
John Cunningham was a member of General Shelby's cavalry during the War
of 1812, was in at the death of the brave and crafty Tecumseh at the battle
of the Thames, and after the war served as joint state senator for Bath
and Bourbon counties, Kentucky. He was in the senate at the time
of Henry Clay's death, and it was through his political manipulation that
John J. Crittenden was elected to succeed that great statesman in the senate
of the nation. As a breeder of thoroughbred race horses and Durham
cattle, he was a son of whom Kentucky might well be proud. One horse
he owned, Woodpecker, sire of Gray Eagle, cost him the sum of five thousand
dollars, which at that time was the highest price ever paid for a horse.
He passed away on his farm near Paris, during August, 1864, aged sixty-nine
years.
Our subject's mother was Mary (Bean) Cunningham,
born near Winchester, Virginia, which was also the native state of her
parents, who were of German descent. Upon the outbreak of the Revolution
her ancestors living at that time became so intensely American as to cease
speaking the German tongue, and to assist in every possible manner the
colonial patriots in their struggle for freedom. The mother's parents
were pioneers at Strode Station, Clark county, Kentucky, but a few miles
from the home of Daniel Boone. The male members of the family were
all farmers, and her father, John Bean, was a major in the army during
the War of 1812. She died at the old home, aged ninety-three, in
the year 1888.
William R. Cunningham lived in his native
state until twenty-three. At the age of twelve he was placed in a
subscription school, where he remained a student thirty-six consecutive
months without a vacation, after which period he was placed under the tutorage
of Professor John Lutz, the professor of mathematics in the Transylvania
University at Lexington, Kentucky. Thus young Cunningham learned
the profession of civil engineering, and for more than a year practiced
under Professor Lutz. Professor Lutz then advised the elder Cunningham
to place the boy in the Kentucky Military Institute, then located at Blue
Licks, with a view to preparing him for West Point, there to educate him
to be a topographical engineer. James G. Blaine was then occupying
the chair of mathematics at the Kentucky Military Institute, and owing
to a ruction in the school, in which Mr. Blaine was involved, it was removed
to the vicinity of Frankfort, and Blaine resigned. This trouble dissolved
the Cunningham plans, caused the father to conclude that the son should
never receive a college education, and thus altered the entire trend of
his life, at least for the time being. However, the young man determined
to act independently, accumulate sufficient funds to carry him through,
go out into the world alone and give himself a college education.
While putting this resolution into practice he came in contact with Selucius
Garfield, cousin to the martyred president, who was then canvassing the
state in the Buchanan-Breckenridge presidential campaign, in 1856, in behalf
of Buchanan. After Buchanan's election Garfield was appointed receiver
of the land office at Olympia, Washington Territory, and Young Cunningham
was appointed his assistant. He arrived at Olympia in May, 1857,
remained one year then returned to the national capital, recommended by
Fayette McMullin, then governor of the territory, S. Garfield and all other
leading officials of the territory, for the post of superintendent of Indian
affairs of this territory and Oregon, which post was then held by James
W. Nosmith, father-in-law of Senator Levi Ankeny. Then Oregon and
Washington were under one superintendent. Isaac I. Stevens was elected
to congress in 1857 with the understanding that the Washington and Oregon
superintendencies were to be divided, and our subject appointed to the
Washington position. But the necessary Congressional bill failed
in passing and the plan fell through. It was then that William R.
Cunningham entered Bethany college, Brook county, Virginia. He entered
in 1858 and remained until December 19, 1860, at which time, on account
of the intensity of the war spirit, forty-three of the Southern students
withdrew. While in this school he organized, with six fellows, the
Greek fraternity, "Delta Tau Delta," which still exists. When war
finally broke out, Mr. Cunningham, on account of having worked for the
election of Breckenridge for the presidency, was naturally compelled to
join the confederate army, which he did in June, 1862. When George
W. Johnson was made provincial governor of the state of Kentucky, our subject
became one of the revenue commissioners of that government, with military
rank of captain. After General A. S. Johnson abandoned the state
to the Federal troops and fell back into Tennessee, Captain Cunningham
co-operated with the cavalry command of General John H. Morgan, was with
him through his famous raid, and with his command was captured after being
wounded at the battle of Buffington Island, July 19, 1863. He was
then confined in the military prison at Columbus, Ohio. After being
in the prison for eight and one-half months he was released, took the oath
of allegiance, and returned to civil life in Ohio.
On January 4, 1865, he was married to Rebecca
W. James, daughter of George James. Her father was a native of Fredericksburg,
Virginia, and of English parentage. He read law with Chief Justice
Marshall, uncle of Thos. F. Marshall, the famous Kentucky orator, was admitted
to the bar, and went to Zanesville Ohio, where he practiced forty-two years,
and where he died in 1872. Mrs. Cunningham's mother was Martha (Abbott)
James, born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and died in 1858. She
was descended from the famous old Abbott family, of which J. S. C. Abbott,
the historian, was a
member.
Mrs. Cunningham had two brothers: George A.,
a Harvard law graduate, who married a sister of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge;
and Richard F., a hardware merchant, of Nebraska. She has one sister
living, Hattie, widow of John Bancroft, who was the son of George Bancroft,
the noted historian.
Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham went to Kentucky in
1865, and to Missouri in 1866, where the subject farmed and practiced law
until May, 1870, when he became a preacher in the Church of Christ, which
profession he has followed to some extent ever since. He came to
Ritzville in 1889, and took a homestead and timber culture near Scott's
Station, since changed to Cunningham Station, the townsite of which he
owns. He has always been a dominant factor in the political aspect
of the county since coming here, is a forceful speaker and indomitable
worker for the best interests of the community at large. Especially
has he been actively concerned with his fellow citizens in their fight
against the railroads for a reduction in freight tolls. He has two
brothers and one sister: John, George, and Omie.
Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham have three children:
Alice, wife of F. P. French; William R., Jr., and Elizabeth C. The
first named was the only woman who ever became United States court commissioner
in Washington, she having been appointed to succeed her husband, who is
mentioned elsewhere in this volume.
Mr. Cunningham is a member of the A. F. and
A. M., and of the Democratic party. He is now secretary of the Adams
county central committee of that party, and has frequently been a delegate
to its state and county conventions.
Mr. Cunningham, with his wife, son,
William R., Jr., and daughter, owns thirty-five hundred acres of grain
land in Adams county, nearly all of which is under cultivation, and he
owns in addition one of the best residence properties in the city of Ritzville.
On August 5, 1902, Mr. Cunningham was appointed
by the county commissioners the only delegate from Adams county to meet
the railroad presidents, J. J. Hill, C. S. Mellen, and A. L. Mohler, of
the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Oregon Railroad and Navigation
Companies, respectively. It is an admitted fact that Mr. Cunningham
delivered the speech which made the "hit" that caused the reduction of
freight rates, which was the object of the assemblage.
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