Umatilla County OR Archives Biographies.....Cunningham, Charles  May 20, 1846 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Carlene Still crstill@oregontrail.net August 4, 2006, 2:40 am

Author: Colonel William Parsons

Page 404, 405

CHARLES CUNNINGHAM
	It is now our pleasant privilege to give an epitome of the brilliant 
career of one of the most prominent citizens not only of Umatilla county but 
of the entire  northwest, being in his especial line the leader of the sheep 
industry of this vast region.  Mr. Cunningham has made a record from the time 
that he started in New York until the present that is exceeded by few during 
their entire life.
	It gives the secret of much of his energy and keenness when we point 
to county Galway, Ireland, as the place of his birth, which occurred on May 
20, 1846. Here he spent the first twelve years of his life, making his way as 
best he could, his parents having died when he was very young.  He gained what 
education he was able to pick up himself, which by careful reading he has 
augmented until he stands among the best informed men of this entire region. 
He landed in New York in April, 1864, with neither relatives, friends nor 
acquaintances, and one month later enlisted on the sloop-of-war Galena as 
messenger boy in the United States navy.  It is of note that this vessel went 
down some years since in the fierce storm at Apia, Samoa.  He was in the 
battle of Mobile and received a severe wound, while the ship was so badly 
shattered that it was impossible to get her to the yards at Philadelphia until 
ship carpenters came and repaired her. After two months on the hospital ship 
he received his discharge and came via the Isthmus to California, landing in 
San Francisco in 1865. Here he followed farming for five years and then came 
to Umatilla county and took up a pre-emption claim on Butter creek in 1876, 
and with the hard-earned wages that he had saved bought his first band of nine 
hundred sheep. Here he commenced operations, devoting his whole attention to 
the raising of sheep, and bringing to bear all his native ability and wisdom 
and his acquired knowledge through experience.  This soon began to tell and it 
became evident that Umatilla had acquired no ordinary stockman in the person 
of Mr. Cunningham.  He has constantly increased until now he is the proprietor 
of a princely domain of eighteen thousand acres of land on Butter and Birch 
creeks, while he owns twenty-one thousand head of sheep, giving him an annual 
wool clip of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, while his annual income 
from this immense establishment is over seventy thousand dollars.  His sheep 
are of the justly famous Rambula and Delane Merinos.  He keeps the strains 
entirely separate and furnishes rams to all the sheep men on this side of the 
Rockies, having a world-wide reputation in the leading journals as a sheep 
breeder.  He is also president of the Wool Growers’ Stock Journal.
	His first marriage was celebrated in Pendleton, when Miss Sarah 
Dougherty became his wife.  To this union were born two children, one, Sarah, 
living at the present time and one son dying in infancy.  Mrs. Cunningham was 
a native of Ireland and died in 1883.  Mr. Cunningham is a member of the 
B.P.O.E. lodge of Pendleton. He owns considerable valuable city property, 
besides the beautiful residence on Alta street where the family now reside. He 
was married to Miss Katie Flannigan, a native of Indiana, at Pendleton in 
1893. To them have been born two children, Cecelia and Charles. The family 
affiliate with the Catholic church.  During the Bannock war Mr. Cunningham 
lost over five thousand dollars worth of stock. Thus from the Irish lad 
landing in New York a stranger, whose only capital was plenty of pluck and two 
good strong hands, and who at once offered his blood for the honor of the flag 
under which he had come to dwell, we have passed briefly to the leading 
stockman of the northwest, a noted financier and commendable and loyal 
citizen, whose record is as clean as it has been brilliant.


Additional Comments:
An Illustrated History of Umatilla County by Colonel William Parsons and of 
Morrow County by W. S. Shiach with a brief outline of the early history of the 
State of Oregon.  W. H. Lever, Publisher  1902.


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