History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison and Nicholas Counties, Kentucky, ed.
by William Henry Perrin,  O. L. Baskin & Co., Chicago, 1882.  p. 553.
[Bourbon County]    [Clintonville Precinct]

JOHN CUNNINGHAM, deceased, whose portrait appears in this work, may be
truthfully said to have been one of the representative men of Bourbon
County. He was born June 15, 1795, in Hardy County, Virginia. His parents
were Robert and Mary Robinson Cunningham, both of whom were natives of
the old Dominion.  Robert was born September 15, 1775.  Robert was a son
John Cunningham, a native or Ireland, who emigrated to Virginia prior to
the Revolution.  Robert was a participant in the Whiskey Rebellion of
1794, and served as Major; his sword is yet in the hands of grandchildren
here in Clintonville.  He came to Kentucky in 1796, embarking at Wheeling
in a flat boat, and settled on Strode's Creek in Clark County.  To him were
born John, Belinda, Jesse, Abner, Lucinda, Isaac, Jemima, Maria and Mary.
John and Abner settled in Bourbon County; Jesse, Isaac and Maria settled
in Clark County; Maria became the wife of Matthew Hume; Elizabeth, wife
of John Flournoy, of Scott County; Mary, of George Carlysle, of Woodford
County; Isaac became the father of twenty-three children; but one of the
number came to maturity, Rebecca, who married Isaac Vanmeter, of Clark
County.  John Cunningham, the subject of these lines, was married December
27, 1817, to Mary Bean, a native of this State.  She was born Sept. 22,
1796, on Strodes Creek in Clark County.  She is the daughter of John Bean,
and Eva, daughter of Dr. Peter Sensine, a native of Ireland.  Mr.
Cunningham removed to Bourbon County in 1818, where he spent the greater
portion of his life.  He was truly a representative man of his time. His
early advantages for acquiring an education were very meager, but he made
the best of his advantages and studied and read much.  Being a close and
steady thinker, a liberal patron of good books, and the public journals,
he became at length a well-informed man of the locality.  He engaged
successfully in farming; was a large landholder at the time of his death;
was very methodical and exact in his farming operations, building fence
of the most durable character, stone being his choice, of which he has
left many monuments in this line.  He did much to encourage the breeding
and growth of fine stock--horses seemed his favorite class.  He gave
special attention to them, and owned the noted horse "Woodpecker."  He
served as a soldier in the war of 1812, and was a warm and ardent admirer
of Henry Clay.  From 1833 to 1850 he served as Justice of the Peace; in
1853 he began handling short horns, and continued in this interest up to
the time of his death.  In 1833 he was chosen to represent his County in
the legislature, re-elected in 1839, and to the Senate in 1851, '2, 3' and
'4.  In all matters that pertained to the good of the Commonwealth, John
Cunningham ever bore a prominent part; he largely encouraged the building
of railroads and pikes; he was free-hearted and unselfish in his aims and
purposes, and labored for the good of his county and country generally, and
at his death he was mourned as one beloved by all; he passed away
peacefully, Aug. 17, 1864.  His wife yet survives him on the homestead,
upon which lives John and Naomi; Robert and Lewis on farms adjoining.

Cunningham Robinson Hume Flournoy Carlysle Vanmeter Bean Sensine
=
Clark-KY Scott-KY Woodford-KY Hardy-VA Ireland

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/bourbon/cunningham.j.txt