Person:Cunningham Sample (2)

Cunningham Sample, Esq.

• (GenForum) Semple Family Genealogy Forum; From: Chamberlain, Bobby. J.; Date: 19 Feb 2006; Subject: Cunningham S. Sample, ESQ., of Mercer Co., PA; Info: Cunningham S. Sample: Chronology (1762-1822).Source

1762: Born, York Co., PA (27 Dec.)

1785: Tax List, Washington Co., PA (14 Jan.) - 300 acres.

1791: Graduated, University of Pennsylvania, Phila., PA

1794: Recommended for ordination by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the USA meeting in Philadelphia, PA (May); listed as a minister of the Presbytery of Baltimore, MD, for Frederick and “State Ridge” (May); ordained by the Presbytery of Baltimore, MD (30 Sept.); ordered to discharge a mission on the western shore of MD, preaching at Frederick and Pipe Crk.; preached at the First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, PA (winter; baptized a Mrs. Wm. Eichbaum, then only 2 yrs. old)

1796: Denied approval of his course of work by the General Assembly of the Presbyteryterian Church since he had deviated from his appointed mission, preferring instead to live and preach in Pittsburgh

1798: Preached a sermon for the national day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer proclaimed by Pres. John Adams, First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, PA (May); listed as a minister of the Presbytery of Baltimore, MD (May); admitted to Jefferson Co., OH, Bar (Aug.); admitted to Washington Co., PA, bar (Nov.); admitted to Westmoreland Co., PA, bar (Dec.); nominated Wm. Ayres to the Allegheny Co., PA, Bar (Dec.)

1799: Withdrew from the ministry to pursue a secular career (i.e., as an attorney; Presbytery of Baltimore minutes, 16 Apr.)

1800: Admitted to the Bar, Crawford Co., PA (6 Jul.)

1801: Inherited from father Cunningham, Sr., the sum of 20 shillings, a bed, and bedclothes; directed by father’s will to repay to his estate upon his decease or within a yr. thereafter the sum of £ 600 pursuant to the terms of a deed of conveyance dated Apr. 1795 (4 Mar.); nominated Sampson Smith King to the Allegheny Co., PA, Bar (26 Mar.)

About 1803: Married Ann Bell

1804: Admitted to practice, Beaver Co., PA (6 Feb.); on motion of Steel Semple, admitted to practice, Butler Co., PA (13 Feb.); admitted to practice, Mercer Co., PA^S1

1804/1805: Birth of son Henry A.

1804/1805: Birth of daughter Emeline

1805: Bought Mercer town lot from trustees of Mercer Co. (13 May)

1805: First postmaster, Mercer Co., PA (1 Jul.; held office until 1 Jul. 1810)

1806: Surety, bond executed by John Findley, prothonotary, Mercer Co., PA (9 Jan.); surety, bond executed by John C. Stewart, deputy surveyor, Mercer Co., PA (26 Apr.)

1807: Agreement with John Garvin for 5 acres, Mercer Co., PA (17 Jun.)

1808: Attorney for agreement between John Garvin & Jas. Breaden to exchange some of lands, Mercer Co., PA (6 Dec.); viewer, Snodgrass Rd., Mercer Co., PA (estab’d, Dec. court session)

1810: Census, Mercer Co., PA (Mercer)

1810: Death of wife Ann

1811: Among those recommending establishment of a road from Mercer to Big Bend, Mercer Co., PA (estab’d, Feb. court session)

War of 1812: On one occasion, now aged and obese, he is described as the only man left in town when the local menfolk are called upon for the war effort, Mercer Co., PA

1812: Bought land from John Garvin and Jas. Breden, Springfield Twp., Mercer Co., PA

1813: Quitclaim to him from Alex. McConnell, Mercer Co., PA; witness, quitclaim of Alex. McConnell to Walter Oliver, Mercer Co., PA

1814: Witness, sale of land by Jos. Smith to Jos. Powell, Mercer Co., PA (Jan.)

1820: Census, Mercer Co., PA (Mercer)

1821: Candidate, State Assembly, Mercer Co., PA

1822: Will; died, Mercer Co., PA (28 Feb.)

• It should be noted that in Feb. 1826, a request from his executors Hugh Bingham & John Banks to sell some of his lands “for debts and the maintenance of the 3 [!] children” was granted. And in 1829, according to Mercer Co. records, land in New Castle was sold by the executors to Jos. Emery for the maintenance of the two minor children, Henry Sample & Emeline Sample.

1. ↑ The Bench and Bar, Chapter 10 (Transcribed by Pat Collins), in History of Butler County Pennsylvania, 1895.

   The early attorneys who came here from Pittsburg to attend upon the sessions of the court were much given to telling stories about Butler county and her people, calculated to amuse Pittsburg auditors, but to have the opposite effect upon residents of Butler. The SEMPLEs took delight in asserting that a whippoorwill, before leaving Allegheny county to fly across Butler county, would provide rations for the trip, and that, owing to the extreme shortness of the clover, bees were compelled to get down upon their knees in order to gather even a scant supply of honey. The poverty of the hog was also dilated upon, and much fun made of its alleged leanness. Later on, when Butler hotel tables added to their bills of fare the toothsome buckwheat cake, these same merrymaking lawyers conferred upon Butler the title of "The Buckwheat County," a name continued to the present time.
   
   The first record of the court of quarter sessions is dated February 13, 1804. On that day the commission of Hon. Jesse MOORE, as president of the court of common pleas, of the counties of Butler, Beaver, Mercer, Crawford and Erie, was read, as well as those issued to Samuel FINDLEY and John PARKER, as associate judges of Butler county. The following attorneys were then admitted to practice before the court, on motion of Steel SEMPLE: William N. IRWIN, Alexander W. FOSTER, William WILKINS, Isaac MASON, Henry HASLETT, Thomas COLLINS, Henry BALDWIN, Cunningham S. SEMPLE, John GILMORE and James MOUNTAIN. Steel SEMPLE was then admitted on motion of Thomas COLLINS. On February 14, Joseph SHANNON was enrolled as a member of this bar, and William NELLIS and William McDONALD were appointed constables.

2. ↑ Campbell, T. C. The Twentieth Century Bench and Bar of Pennsylvania. (Chicago, Illinois: H. C. Cooper, Jr., Bro. & Co., 1903).

   Page 20
   
   Then there was Steele Semple, admitted on motion of James Hamilton, January, 1791, who was graduated in the first class of Dickinson College, went to Pittsburgh and died in April, 1813.
   
   Butler County by T. C. Campbell
   
   Page 461
   
   Upon the same day the bar of the county was organized. William N. Irwin, Alexander W. Foster, William Wilkins, Isaac Meason, Henry Haslet, Thomas Collins, Henry Baldwin, Cunningham S. Semple, John Gilmore, and James Mountain being admitted upon mostion of Steel Semple, and then Steel Semple being admitted upon mostion of Thomas Collins.
   
   Of the attorneys present, Steel Semple and A. W. Foster were noted lawyers of the Pittsburgh bar who were to practice…
   
   Page 462
   
   …extensively in the Butler bar and be actively engaged in its trials. Semple practiced in Butler county until about 1810, and Foster until about 1824, during which time the later appeared in almost all of the Butler cases removed to the Supreme Court.

3.   From all indications, Cunningham S. Sample, Esq., was the son of Cunningham Sample, Sr. (1723-1803) and Agnes Welsher (1730-1783), who were married in Boston, MA, in 1746 and came to reside in Peach Bottom, York Co., PA, where they spent the rest of their lives. As a young man, C.S. Sample—whose surname is sometimes rendered as “Semple” and whose middle initial is at times given as “P” or “N”—removed to western PA, after graduating with a law degree from the Univ. of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, and after being ordained by the presbytery of MD as a Presbyterian minister. He preached for a while in the churches of Pittsburgh, but soon left the ministry to pursue a career as an attorney. About 1803, he m. Ann Bell, of Mercer Co., PA, where the couple settled and had two or three children: Henry A.; Emeline; and possibly Mary. In 1810, Ann died. Cunningham, who served as the first postmaster of Mercer Co. from 1805 until 1810, continued to exercise his legal career throughout western PA. He lived until 1822.