|
biography
|
|
Cunningham, Joseph Leroy, Of Irish and Canadian parentage, and inheriting the
commendable traits of the two peoples, Joseph LeRoy Cunningham, of near Avon, Eagle county, where he conducts a prosperous and profitable ranch and cattle industry,
has made good use of his faculties and opportunities, and in so doing has contributed essentially and substantially in helping to open to settlement and cultivation
a new region in the wilds of this state, and causing it to bloom and fructify with all the products of civilization. He is the son of Conn and Ellen Cunningham, the
former a native of Ireland and the latter of Canada, who moved to Illinois many years ago and there ended their days in the peaceful and independent life of a good farm,
the mother dying in 1888 and the father in 1895. Their son Joseph, the last born of their six living children, came into the world on August 26, 1853, at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
He attended the common schools and the Christian College at Abingdon, Illinois, remaining with his parents until 1880, assisting on their farm and farming other land in addition.
In the year last named he left the parental roof and came west to Carson, Iowa, where he passed two years in profitable farming, then, in 1882, came to Colorado, and locating
at Leadville, conducted a grocery in partnership with his brother Thomas H. five years. They prospered in the enterprise and in 1887 Joseph returned to Illinois, where he
remained nearly a year, coming back to Colorado in the spring of 1888, and taking up his residence at Gilman and there starting another grocery store. This happened to be a
credit community, however, and lack of payments by his patrons obliged him to give up the business. From 1892 to 1897 he worked at quartz mining for wages, and in the latter
year purchased his present ranch of one hundred and thirty acres, all tillable land and well supplied with water. Since buying the land he has made many improvements on it
and largely increased its arable acreage, and he now has a good farm which is cultivated with ordinary ease and yields good crops of the products usual in the neighborhood,
hay and cattle being his main reliance. Politically he supports the Democratic party, but he is too progressive and broad-minded to be bound in party chains where matters of
local improvement are concerned. On January 1, 1879, he united in marriage with Miss Mary F. Tippett, a native of Fulton county, Illinois. They have seven children,
Alberta I., Mary E., Genevieve, Charles F., George C., Josephine and Roy. Mr. Cunningham has four sisters, Elizabeth, Mary, Margaret and Isabella, and one brother, Robert.
Progressive Men of Western Colorado, Publ 1905. Transcribed by Kim Mohler.
|