John Cunningham, 1822-1904

CUNNINHAM

Posted By: Emmet County IAGenWeb Coordinator (email)
Date: 6/27/2009 at 17:19:49

The Passing of a Pioneer.

Another of the old residents of Emmet county passed away on Thursday, September 22nd, 1904 after a long and rather painful illness in the person of John Cunningham who for thirty-nine years had been a resident of High Lake township and lived on the same section of land he took up in those early days. The funeral was held from the Catholic church this city on Saturday and there was a large attendance of the old neighbors and friends from the locality where he lived so long. The date of the illness of Mr. Cunningham dates back to about two years ago when he was badly hurt at the flour mill in this city. While waiting for a grist to be ground he, it seems, was leaning against a pair of trucks talking to a friend when the wheels slipped throwing him heavily to the ground and in the fall sustained injuries of a nature producing the ailment which caused his death. For the last year almost he was unable to leave his house. Deceased was an Irishman by birth and in an early day bade farewell to the land of his fathers to seek his home and fortune in America. For several years he was variously employed and saw many sections of the country until 1865 he came to Emmet county to engage in farming and which labors he was ever after engaged in. He leaves a wife a family of five sons and two daughters.

Mr. Cunningham was in the eighty-second year of his age and during the long time he made his home on these prairies he encountered many of the privations and hardships that are generally meted out to the men who blaze the pathway for future generations. He succeeded well and owned a fine two hundred forty acre tract of land upon which he had made a comfortable home and where peace and plenty abounded.

Note: Mr. Cunningham is buried in the Graettinger Cemetery.

Contributed by: Ruth Hackett. Source: Estherville Enterprise, Estherville, Emmet County, Iowa; September 28, 1904.