John William Cunningham and Rachel Wallace
Husband John William Cunningham 1 2 3 4
Born: 17 Feb 1794 - near New London, Chester Co, PA 1 3 4 Christened: Died: 26 Apr 1865 1 Buried:
Father: William Cunningham (1767-1810) 1 5 6 Mother: Mary Hill (1763-1831) 1 2 6
Marriage: 26 Jun 1823 1 3 4
Wife Rachel Wallace 1 3 4
Born: 24 May 1798 1 4 Christened: Died: 1870 4 Buried:
Father: Peter Wallace ( -1839) 7 8 9 Mother: Jane Craig (1767-1833) 10 11 12
Children
1 F Mary Cunningham 1 3 4
Born: May 1824 4 Christened: Died: Mar 1915 4 Buried:
2 M P. Wallace Cunningham 1 3 4
Born: 1826 4 Christened: Died: 1875 4 Buried:Spouse: Mary Scott Mendell ( - ) 1 4
3 M Rev. William Cunningham 1 3 13
Born: 1827 13 Christened: Died: 1879 13 Buried:Spouse: Laura Aldrich ( -Bef 1880) 1Spouse: Rachel Latham ( - ) 1 13
4 M Samuel Cunningham 3 13 14
Born: 1829 13 Christened: Died: 1871 - Blairsville, Indiana Co, PA 13 Buried:Spouse: Catharine "Kate" Johnston ( - ) 13 14
5 M Jesse A. Cunningham 1 3 13
Born: 1831 13 Christened: Died: Aft 1906 Buried:Spouse: Nancy "Nannie" McFarren ( - ) 1 13
6 M John Cunningham 1 3 13
Born: 28 Oct 1834 - Blairsville, Indiana Co, PA 3 13 Christened: Died: 24 Dec 1893 - Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland Co, PA 3 13 Buried: - Blairsville Cemetery, Blairsville, Indiana Co, PASpouse: Eliza Jane Taylor (1836-1899) 13 Marr: 1 Jan 1868 - New Alexandria, Westmoreland Co, PA 3 13
7 M Thomas Davis Cunningham 1 3 15
Born: 1839 15 Christened: Died: 9 Oct 1913 15 Buried:Spouse: Helen Shepley ( - ) 15
General Notes: Husband - John William Cunningham
From the day he was left fatherless, he was cast upon his own resources, not only for his own maintenance, but being the oldest son, for the maintenance also of a dependent mother and several brothers and sisters. He at once devoted himself to learning a trade, and this accomplished, he labored for several years as a journeyman, to obtain the means to support his mother and her family. In the spring of 1818 he removed to Indiana, Pennsylvania, and in November of that year attended the first sale of lots at Blairsville, and in the following spring made his permanent home in the embryo village. Through his influence the first prayer meeting in the village was established, and occasional preaching secured, until in September, 1862, the Presbyterian church of West Union (the name and location were afterward changed to Blairsville,) was established. Mr. Cunningham, though then comparatively a young man, was chosen and ordained one of its ruling elders, and held the position nearly forty-three years. For thirty years he was the superintendent, and almost the life of the Sabbath school. He was for a much longer period the centre around which the prayer meeting lived and had its being.
He was closely connected with the growth of the town, having come when its site was almost an unbroken forest. He built and used as a workshop one of the first tenements erected in it, and cut with his hand-axe a path diagonally across the town (then only on paper) from his own lot to the lot later occupied by Mrs. Shields, which contained one of the very few other houses in the place. From that day till his death he was identified with the material, intellectual, moral and religious welfare of the town.
He was reared in Chester County, and in Lancaster and Mifflin counties, Pennsylvania, and later was one of the founders of Blairsville, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, buying one of the first lots, and erecting one of the first houses of that borough. He was a cabinet maker by trade, and followed this vocation throughout the active years of his life. He was one of the associate judges of Indiana County, for some years, and one of its most prominent citizens. He was a staunch Republican in politics from the beginning of the civil war, he and all his sons associating themselves with that party.
He was one of the original ruling elders in Blairsville Presbyterian church.
1 —, History of Indiana County, Pennsylvania (Newark, OH: J. A. Caldwell, 1880), Pg 359.
2 —, Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley (Chambersburg, PA: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897), Pg 591.
3 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. III (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 342.
4 Jane Maria Craig, Samuel Craig, Senior, Pioneer to Western Pennsylvania, and His Descendants (Greensburg, PA: Privately printed, 1915), Pg 104.
5 —, Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley (Chambersburg, PA: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897), Pg 590.
6 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. III (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 341.
7 —, History of Indiana County, Pennsylvania (Newark, OH: J. A. Caldwell, 1880), Pg 362.
8 Joseph F. McFarland, 20th Century History of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1910), Pg 732.
9 Jane Maria Craig, Samuel Craig, Senior, Pioneer to Western Pennsylvania, and His Descendants (Greensburg, PA: Privately printed, 1915), Pg 98.
10 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 408.
11 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 315.
12 Jane Maria Craig, Samuel Craig, Senior, Pioneer to Western Pennsylvania, and His Descendants (Greensburg, PA: Privately printed, 1915), Pg 16, 98.
13 Jane Maria Craig, Samuel Craig, Senior, Pioneer to Western Pennsylvania, and His Descendants (Greensburg, PA: Privately printed, 1915), Pg 105.
14 —, History of Indiana County, Pennsylvania (Newark, OH: J. A. Caldwell, 1880), Pg 359, 366.
15
Jane Maria Craig, Samuel Craig, Senior, Pioneer to Western Pennsylvania, and His Descendants (Greensburg, PA: Privately printed, 1915), Pg 106.
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