... 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. ...
... Robert, who,
impressed with the advantages to be found in a new and rapidly developing
country, determined to try his fortunes in Kentucky, toward which the tide
of emigration was rapidly flowing. Accordingly taking passage on a flat
boat at Wheeling, he set our for "the dark and bloody ground" for the
mastery of which civilization and savage fury was yet contending. The
voyage was a perilous one. Simon Girty, with his Indian warriors kept
watch from either bank of the Ohio, and whenever their frail craft drifted
near the shore the sharp report of a rifle was sure to break in upon the
scene. This necessitated keeping in the middle of the stream. Finally
after many adventures the boat arrived at Limestone, as Maysville was then
called. From Maysville he went to Clark County and settled. Here in 1795
was born to him a son, John Cunningham ...