When I
finally started doing "real" genealogy research in
Jonesborough, Tennessee, I was surprised to find
almost nothing about Dr. Samuel Blair Cunningham,
early physician and first president of the E. T. &
V Railway. The home he built is on the
historic walking tour of Jonesborough, and he is
buried in the Old Jonesboro Cemetery, but I could not
find anything about his family.
I am so grateful to
cousins and friends, Jim and Pat Blair of
Huntsville, Alabama, for sharing so much of their
early research and finding the home and church
of Rev. Alexander Newton Cunningham; to Margaret
Vance Webb for sharing her extensive research; to
Ann Geoghegan for bringing in the element of Hugh
and James Cunningham, who seem almost certain to
have been the brothers of Ebenezer John Cunningham.
It has, indeed, been a very interesting family to
research.
Ebenezer John
Cunningham was born around 1768 in Augusta County,
Virginia. In 1799 there is a record of a deed
transfer from James Cunningham to Ebenezer John
Cunningham, of 160 acres on Little Limestone Creek,
$500.00 "part of 300 ac from Robert Gentry to Hugh
Cunningham entered 28 Dec 1778 by Gentry, Deed Bk 6,
p. 514." (Source: Margaret Vance).
Martha Blair
Cunningham's was a family of devout
Presbyterians, involved with Washington
College and the early Presbyterian Church of
Washington County, Tennessee. Ebenezer
John Cunningham is said to have been a member of the
old Lebanon church in Washington County.
Three of the Cunningham brothers became Presbyterian
ministers. Jane Cunningham married a prominent
Presbyterian minister, Rev. James McLin, who died in
Cass County, Georgia in 1848. As
you read through the biographies, you'll see that
many of the Cunningham daughters married
Presbyterian ministers.
Some researchers are adamant that our
Ebenezer John Cunningham is the son of Christopher Cunningham of
Washington County. I am not convinced.
