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William Tharp Cunningham

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Political party
  
Democratic

Resigned
  
1912

Party
  
Democratic Party

Role
  
Lawyer

Name
  
William Cunningham


Preceded by
  
Three-member district: C. Chaplin, Jr. E. E. Hammett P. A. Sompayrae

Succeeded by
  
Three-member district: J. Isaac Friedman Joseph C. Henry Paul M. Potts

Born
  
August 21, 1871 Natchitoches Louisiana, USA (
1871-08-21
)

Resting place
  
American Cemetery in Natchitoches

Spouse(s)
  
Emma Johnson Cunningham (married 1895-1952, his death)

Relations
  
Charles Milton Cunningham (brother) W. Peyton Cunningham (nephew) Mildred Methvin (great-niece)

Died
  
February 7, 1952, Natchitoches, Louisiana, United States

Parents
  
Milton Joseph Cunningham, Thalia Allen Tharp Cunningham

Education
  
Northwestern State University, Tulane University

William Tharp Cunningham, known as W. T. Cunningham or as Bill Cunningham (August 21, 1871 – February 7, 1952), was a lawyer and judge in Natchitoches, Louisiana, who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives for one term between 1908 and 1912.

Biography

Descended from a prominent political family, he was a son of the former Thalia Allen Tharp (1843-1872) and Milton Joseph Cunningham, known as Joe Cunningham, a member of both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature and the Attorney General of Louisiana from 1884 to 1888 and again from 1892 to 1900. W. T.'s mother died at the age of twenty-nine when he was only a year old. Cunningham was reared in his native Natchitoches, where he attended public schools, the preparatory department of Tulane University in New Orleans, and the Louisiana State Normal School, a teacher-training institution, now Northwestern State University in Natchitoches. For fourteen years, he was engaged in farming and stock raising and thereafter retained plantation interests. He studied law at Tulane University School of Law and in 1904 was admitted to the bar before the Louisiana Supreme Court. After a term in the state House of Representatives, during which time he continued his private law practice as well, Cunningham was elected in 1912 as a state judge of the 11th Judicial District Court, encompassing Natchitoches and Red River parishes.

In 1895, Cunningham married Emma Johnson (1874-1963), daughter of James J. Johnson and the former Elizabeth Campbell, who was active in the Methodist Episcopal Church at the local and state levels. Cunningham, his wife, and other family members are interred at American Cemetery in Natchitoches. He helped to arrange the burial in the family plot of his boyhood family's African American housekeeper, Mary "Mammy" Pitcher (1847-1913).

References

William Tharp Cunningham Wikipedia