Randolph County, W.V., CUNNINGHAM Letter - 1962 by Elam WYATT ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted May 1998 by Susan Irish, ************************************************************************** The Jackson Cunningham's of Middle Mountain, WV by Elam C. WYATT, Written at the request of H. Ralph CUNNINGHAM April 1962 Mr. E. C. WYATT, born in 1885, was 77 years old at the time of this letter. The CUNNINGHAMS are of Irish descent but I have not had the opportunity to do any research work to learn where or when the first ones came to America, and the first one that I learned of was Stephen CUNNINGHAM but was just a child and not old enough to inquire more about him. He was the father of Jackson CUNNINGHAM of whom I knew from the time I was a wee lad until his death, It was the rule in those days for children to be seen and not heard, not to talk to older folks unless they were spoken to or else get permission from adults to ask a few questions if all of the adults had finished their conversation, that is how I learned about Stephen CUNNINGHAM I got permission to ask that much, but I never learned "Jack's" mothers name. I have heard him say he had a brother Adonijack (CUNNINGHAM) living in Clarksburg. I knew one sister they called Cal (CUNNINGHAM) that's all the name I ever heard, she never married I never knew what became of her but heard she died in the late 1890's. I assume Stephen CUNNINGHAM must have lived and died in Pendleton County at a place near the Randolph - Pendleton - Pocahontas County lines called Hunting Grounds where the Cherry Grove post office now is as there is where Jackson and his wife first lived and where some of his children were born. Jackson and Eleanor WYMER were married sometime in the 1850"s as they were married when the Civil War was on and "Jack" shelled his corn and hid it in wooden barrels in the woods to keep raiding armies from taking and the ground hogs gnawed holes in the barrels and ate some of it. Their children as I remember them, George, Arnold, Elizabeth, Andrew, Ellen or maybe Eleanor and Martha and about five that either died premature born or at birth. You can see the little mounds on earth today in the WYATT cemetery on Middle Mountain south of the WYMER post office. I do not know if they were named or not. Eleanor died in childbirth before I was born and the only thing I knew about her was what the older neighbors told me. She died in 1860's the date is on the tombstone in the WYATT cemetery. Since examining the records I find that Eleanor's father George WYMER bought 100 acres of land in 1860 on Middle Mountain and made the deed to Eleanor, the land was purchased of John TAYLOR for the sum of 175 dollars. So they must have settled on Middle Mountain in 1860. This land was part of a grant to Issac TAYLOR in 1830 by the U.S. Government. Then in 1874 the deed was made to Jackson, and then I assume he divided it or sold it to George and Arnold but Amby WHITE was the owner when I remembered the family, I have saw the house and after Eleanor died he rented the farm my father Coyner WYATT for a few years then to Taylor ELZA from that time to 1885 perhaps 81 to 85 as my brothers Ausburn (WYATT) and Ervin (WYATT) were born up there in 1875 and 1877 but my brother Claude (WYATT) was born in 1872 perhaps they lived there then. Jackson was a home doctor he used herbs and pulled teeth and had a lance to bleed people in those days, his grandson Floyd CUNNINGHAM of Elkins now owns the lance. He pulled a jaw tooth for me with the forceps and he let them slip off the tooth twice and the tooth ached for a few days and nights and was very sore so there was some squalling then and they had to hold me while he yanked it out, I was in my 7th years in 1892. He became very much discouraged and lonely with out a home and decided to marry again over the objections of his children but the marriage was a failure and then he was a man with out a home; he died January 4th 1893, he had started from Middle Mountain out to spend a few days with his son George on a farm along Leading Creek west of Elkins. We heard that he was riding horseback and Cheat River which was frozen over but not solid enough to bear the weight of a horse and he went along on foot and broke the ice and led the horse and had gotten wet and cold and was stricken with pneumonia fever and died, but when they brought his body thru for burial the rivers were all frozen over solid enough to bear up a two horse sled and team. I remember the snow was so deep they couldn't locate Eleanor's grave and there is space enough between them for another grave and the grave diggers got down on a solid rock and had to use dynamite. I learned the names of several plants he used for medicine and David Simmons with whom I made my home with used herbs also and "Jack" would often come and spend a few days with them and hold me on his knee and tell me stories, I remember him as a great conversationalist and had a strong voice, was about 6 feet 1 inch tall black hair brown eyes wore a mustache and chin whiskers, had practiced throwing a hatchet like the Indians did the tomahawk, and could throw a hatchet and stick the blade in a stump at a distance of 20 to 25 feet was an athlete in his day such as boxing, wrestling, and foot racing. He trained Lafayette (Lafe) Elza for his fight with Samson SNYDER and was there when they fought and Elza won and he and Jack ran a race after the fight. SNYDER was bedfast two weeks. Mr. CUNNINGHAM was a hunter and seldom traveled without his muzzle loading rifle. As was the custom in those days to believe in ghosts and witches and they also believed in zodiacal signs for planting and I have heard my brother Ervin tell of a rhyme he used to repeat while planting beans, "one for the bug, one for the fly, one for the beggar as he passes by." Jackson had two very narrow escapes from death, once while a barefoot boy and once while he was a young man. When he was a barefoot boy he was chased by wild hogs and his only escape was to leap into a fence made of thorns, we never heard how long he had to remain in that painful position but when he reached home his parents had to pull the thorns out of his feet with a bullet mold as there were no plyers then. These moulds were used to make rifle balls, some old timers would pull their children's baby teeth with bullet moulds. One occasion when a young man he was chased by an angry bull and the bull won the race so there he faced death but fate saved him he grabbed the bull by the horns and held his head down to the ground until the bull became exhausted but the sharp point of the horns ran clear thru Mr. CUNNINGHAMS hands. I remember two ghost stories he told me when I was a wee lad. He said his mother called him to build a fire and while he was building the fire he glanced around and saw two hands reaching for him but they were not attached to a body. Then I remember of him telling about two men stopping in an old vacant house one night from a rain storm, the house was in good condition, they built a fire in the fireplace and were getting ready to stop there over night when suddenly some thing fell from the upper floor, whirled around like a whirly gig and sank thru the solid floor and the upper floor was in good condition no cracks or knot holes. This was repeated three time and the men fled the scene. Your writer has traveled all hours in the night alone and have hunted raccoons in the high mountains all alone except the dog and gun but never saw any ghosts but scientists agree any more there are such but only certain persons can see or hear them. So I am still wondering although I was scared stiff at those stories at that time. Mr. CUNNINGHAMS neighbors were my grandfather John WYATT first settler of Middle Mountain in 1827 owned 5,500 acres of land from the CUNNINGHAM line on both sides of the mountain to the mouths of the Laurel and Glady Fork, the others were Joe ELZA, Saul CARR, David WYATT, Coyner WYATT (my father) and Jacob TINGLER. There was much wild game when he first settled over there and plenty of brook trout. George CUNNINGHAM first married Mollie HAMRICK and owned land on Middle Mountain and perhaps lived over there; he was a veteran school teacher, began teaching when he was a young man and taught every year up a short time before his death sometime in the 1920's at the age of 76 years. Your writer attended school when he was a teacher at the Eelza school from 1892 to 1896 when there were only four months in the term, and the blue beech was one of the ways of enforcing the rules while others he used was making a ring on the black board and making the pupil put his nose in and another was standing in a corner or staying in at recess, pulling your hair, digging you on top of the head with a pencil, boxing one at side of the head with a book, calling you a gump head, mumdoodle or wooden fox. When one completed a book he knew most every lesson offhand. He gave each one a little ticket in the evening if they had a good lesson, it was a pink one and words printed on it was one token of merit and when you got five of those he place large beautiful ones on a table and each one could choose one he liked best. Your writer very seldom failed getting a ticket and in those four years was only punished undeservedly twice. Each morning you had to greet him with a good morning and when evening came it was a good evening. No whispering or looking out the windows unless he was sure you knew your lesson well. Games were base, baseball, woodchuck, and ring. Teachers those days were honest and worked hard to help the pupil get an education. I felt sorry for those that were rather slow and stupid and they were afraid of him. After he left the old Eelza school he remarked to many that your writer was the most obedient and apt pupil he ever taught. I occasionally visited schools many years afterwards and he would tell the pupils that they thought he was too strict but he remarked "just let Elam (WYATT) tell you how strict I was then". In the year 1908 I worked on his farm on Leading Creek a few weeks. I had just recuperated from a siege of typhoid fever and was on my way to the coal mines but he said I wasn't strong enough to work in the mines and insisted I stay and help him and the boys and girls with their fall work. Yes the girls helped with the farm work. I knew his son Delmar (CUNNINGHAM) but there is where I learned the names of the other children. Their children Odbert, Delmar, Mabel, Lois, Hurst, Wymer, and Elfa. Mollie died sometimes in the 1900's about 1918. They lived along Harrison Avenue then near where the S & S Market now is. He later married Miss Maria JONES daughter of Tillbury JONES of Glady, having sold the home on Harrison Avenue he purchased a home on Diamond Street which is now owned by his niece Edith (KNUTTI) YEARY of Akron Ohio. He died very suddenly while sitting on his porch reading a news paper sometime in the early 1930's. Maria died a few years later. I lived in Morgan town at that time. Odbert CUNNINGHAM died while a child, is buried in the WYATT cemetery on Middle Mountain south of the WYMER post office there is a tombstone at his grave at the foot of Jackson and Eleanor's graves. While mentioning Jack I failed to tell you his full name it was Andrew Jackson CUNNINGHAM, I remember him write his full name on Davy SIMMONS door. Delmar CUNNINGHAM married Miss Orpha WILT daughter of George WILT, they separated. Delmar died in North Carolina sometimes in the 1930's. Mabel CUNNINGHAM was a school teacher and married POTTS they lived on Poe Run on the lands now owned by Raymond CARR. Mr. POTTS died in the 1930's and Mabel died in the early 1940's. Children of Children Ois CUNNINGHAM is a school teacher she went to teach her first term in 1908 while I was employed on their farm. Arnold CUNNINGHAM first married Rose KNUTTI of Alpena. She died in the early 1900's. Arnold was a self made man he and George were brought up the hard way. He also taught school awhile, was elected constable one term them became a clerk in Job PARSON's store at Job and later entered the mercantile business at Alpena the land and hose in now owned by the RATZER family. His store was the third one I was in, Parkerson COLLETTs was the first one along Glady Fork. Collet also operated a water power grist and saw mill, the second store I ever was in at the time was one at Harmon. Mr. CUNNINGHAM next turned to farming and dealing in timberland having purchased a farm owned by Jacob Freidick and known as the Billy WHITE. The eastern branch of the old Seneca Indian Trail went thru this farm and the old pioneers used it to travel over for many years. Billy WHITE settled on that farm in 1849 and Benjamin I. PHARES carried mail over this old trail from Leadsville in Pendleton County. My uncle Ellis A. WYATT settled north of where the Alpena school now is, in 1848 and became the first postmaster at Alpena. Those old pioneers loved to play jokes on each other and Billy WHITE had always worn moccasin which he made himself but he decided he wanted a pair of boots. So he got Ben PHARES brother Bill (PHARES) to order them from Baltimore the merchant measured his foot and the size of the boots were 13. Ben PHARES was to deliver them when they came. On arrival he only brought one the first day he came thru and explained to Mr. WHITE it was too heavy for the horse to carry both boots at one time, he would deliver the other one next mail day if the water wasn't too high. That's some of the early history of the Arnold CUNNINGHAM farm. Now back to Arnold, he decided to try politics again and was elected to the house of Delegates but resigned before his term was out. He then gave his full time to farming and lumber business then decided to get into the mercantile business at Evenwood W.Va. then a thriving lumber town near his home, then like his father he thought life was too lonely without a companion so he married a southern lady but like his did the marriage wasn't a success, we do not know if his children resented his marriage as he and his brothers and sisters did his dads second marriage. He suffered a bad siege of sciatic rheumatism for some time. I know the pain and misery he had to endure as I have had the same experience, then he got a longing for the south and engaged in growing citrus fruit and died down there sometime in the 1930's, is buried in the Alpena cemetery. I lived in Morgantown at that time. His children Wilbur, Lilian, Clara, Ernest; Floyd, and Claude Milton (twins); Fred and Grace. Wilbur married ----He died in 1959 children -------- Lilian got polio while a young girl and was never able to walk Clara married Lou F. PRESYZ he died in the late 1940's Ernest died in 190? Floyd married Olive Wilt daughter of George WILT Claude married Edith ROUSE, Claude died in 1960 he owned the home place Milton married ---- Fred married ---- Grace married Ode SMITH a lumber man he died in the 1920's children Howard JOHNSON Elizabeth CUNNINGHAM like her brothers saw many hardships during her younger days, she married Emil KNUTTI of Alpena children as I remember they were May, Stephen, Bernice, Hallie, Edith and John Elizabeth died in the 1940's Emil died in 1947 Stephen married Margaret RATZER he died about 1921---children Stephen Jr. Bernice married a Mr. COXx I only know of one of their children Dr. Thomas COX a dentist. Hallie married a Mr. OGDEN a state police, they separated children two Edith married first a Mr. MORRIS they separated, two children, then she married a Mr. YEARY they separated – one child John married Adelaide ? of Rowlesburg children a daughter married a Mr. BELL, Joyce, Emil, Freddie, Reginald, John Jr. And Elizabeth Andrew CUNNINGHAM married Emma KNUTTI they lived in Akron, they separated, Andrew died in the 1920's Emma died in the 1960. Eleanor married first a Mr. BUCY, he died perhaps in 1900 and she later married Robert COLLETT I have heard of one child of hers and Mr. BUCY married Glen BRAKE. Joseph Arnold CUNNINGHAM was the only one that was a musician, he loved to play the violin. I notice in the records a Stephen CUNNINGHAM that owned land somewhere in Randolph County but I do not know if he was a relative of Jackson CUNNINGHAM. So I hope this will help the younger CUNNINGHAMS to learn about their ancestors as the first ones came to America from Ireland. If they get an opportunity to examine the records of Pendleton County they could learn more about Stephen CUNNINGHAM and I assume his wife's name must have been Elizabeth.