Cunningham, Joseph O.
Born: 1830-12-12 New York
Died: 1917-04-30 Urbana, Illinois
Born in Lancaster, New York, Joseph O. Cunningham was a teacher, newspaper owner, editor, and publisher, an attorney, county judge, and a Whig turned Republican. His family relocated to Huron County, Ohio, when he was a young child. He labored on the family farm throughout his childhood, and attended school only during the winter months until he turned eighteen. After that, he attended Baldwin Institute in Berea, Ohio, as well as Oberlin College. He taught school for a time in Eugene, Indiana. In October 1853, he married Mary M. McConoughey. The couple moved to Urbana, Illinois, and eventually had at least one child together. From 1853 to 1859, as a member of Cunningham & Flynn, he helped publish the
The Urbana Daily Courier (IL), 1 May 1917, 1:7; 4:4; J. R. Stewart, ed., A Standard History of Champaign County Illinois (Chicago: Lewis, 1918), 2:527-28; U.S. Census Office, Ninth Census of the United States (1870), Urbana, Champaign County, IL, 5-6; Gravestone, Mount Hope Cemetery and Mausoleum, Urbana, IL.