MAJOR GEORGE W. CUNNINGHAM is consistently given consideration in this volume as one of the progressive, public spirited and essentially representative citizens of Seneca county. He is one of the successful business men of the city of Fostoria, where he formerly served as mayor and he has long been a prominent figure in the Ohio National Guard, as, a member of which he tendered his services to the nation at the time of the Spanish-American war, in which he served with much distinction. Major Cunningham is a native son of the Buckeye state and is a member of one of its sterling pioneer families. He was born at Beaver Dam, Allen county, on the 30th of January, 1863, and is a son of Eli B. and Martha (Church) Cunningham, of Beaver Dam, where the father died and the mother died in Fostoria. The father during the major portion of his active career was a justice of the peace. He was also postmaster a number of years, and was conducting a drug store at the time of his death, and was a citizen who ever commanded unqualified respect and esteem.

In the public schools of his native town Major Cunningham secured his early educational discipline, which was supplemented by further study in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware and the National Normal School at Ada, this state. He devoted four years to effective work as a teacher in the public schools and for a time was employed as a clerk in a mercantile establishment in Lima. In 1880 he came to Fostoria, where he was employed as a clerk in a drugstore for a time, after which he individually engaged in the same line of enterprise, with which he was identified for a period of more than twenty years, during the greater portion of which he has had as an able coadjutor E. R. Pillars, with whom he is associated at the present time under the firm name of Cunningham & Pillars. The well equipped establishment has long controlled a large and representative patronage and the success of the enterprise indicates the correct methods brought to bear by the interested principles.

Major Cunningham's identification with the National Guard of the state dates back to the time of his residence in Lima, where he was a member of Company C, Eleventh Regiment. In 1897 he became a member of Company D, Sixteenth Regiment of the Ohio National Guard, in Fostoria, and in this command he was made second lieutenant. At the inception of the Spanish-American war members of this company formally tendered their se1-vices to the government and on the 12th of May, 1898, they were mustered into the United States service as the Sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. At Knoxville, Tennessee, Major Cunningham was promoted to first lieutenant and assigned to Company G of his regiment. On the 24th of the following May he was mustered out, with other members of his regiment, at Augusta, Georgia, after having been absent for thirteen months. The regiment was the first of the American soldiers to land at Cenfuegos and passed four months on the island of Cuba, after which it returned to the United States and it remained in the south until it was mustered out. After the close of the war Major Cunningham became prominently concerned in the reorganization of Company D of the Sixth Ohio, National Guard, of which he was made captain. He retained this office nearly five years. His title of major is given him by reason of his service in this office as a member of the staff of the governor of his native state. He is also prominently identified with the Knights of Pythias, in which fraternity he formerly served on the staff of Brigadier General Minchull with the rank of colonel. In the Masonic fraternity he has attained to the Knight Templar degree, in which his affiliation is with Fort Commandery, No.62, in which he has served as generalissimo. He also holds membership in the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, and the Junior Order of United American Mechanics.

From the time of attaining his legal majority Mr. Cunningham has been arrayed for the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and he has given effective service in behalf of the party cause. He has served as a member of both the Seneca County Republican Committee and the City Committee of Fostoria and in the latter he held the position of chairman. From 1893 to 1897 he was a valued member of the city council and during the last year was its president. In April, 1901, there was accorded him distinctive mark of popular confidence and esteem when he was elected mayor of his home city. In this chief executive office he served two terms and in this connection the following pertinent statements have been made: "His administration, businesslike, practical and progressive, gave excellent satisfaction to the fair minded citizens and furnished additional proof of his loyalty to good government and the welfare of his adopted home. His public career has ever been honorable and straight forward and in his life history there are no esoteric chapters, all being an open book. His life is worthy of emulation, all is above condemnation, and thus it is that Major Cunningham deserves and receives the respect and confidence of his fellow men."

On the 15th of December, 1887, was solemnized the marriage of Major Cunningham to Miss Mary Kenower, who was born and reared in Fostoria and who is a daughter of the late Jacob L. Kenower, an honored pioneer and representative business man of this city. Major and Mrs. Cunningham have two children: Harold, who was born on the 25th of July, 1892, and who is now a student in the Fostoria High School, and George K., who was born on the 20th of January, 1898, and who is attending the public school. Major and Mrs. Cunningham are valued and popular factors in connection with the best social activities of their home city and here they are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal church.




Page 591-592
History of Seneca County, Ohio
by A. J. Baughman