Program

Hometown Heritage®

Subject

People, Site

Location

5229 McIntosh Rd, Oxford, AL 36203, USA

Lat/Long

33.572072, -85.796513

Grant Recipient

City of Oxford

William Cunningham was born in 1748 in Donegal County, Ireland. By 1776, he was living in Guilford County, North Carolina, where he enlisted as a private in Captain John Nelson’s company of Colonel James Martin’s regiment. During this enlistment he participated in the campaign against the Cherokee Nation and assisted in burning the town of Watauga. He enlisted again after moving to Tennessee in 1780, serving in Captain Adam Sherrels company under General John Sevier.

Following the Revolutionary War, he lived in both Alabama and Tennessee, moving multiple times. In 1838 his wife passed away while they lived in Tennessee, and he moved back to Alabama, where his son was living near Oxford. He remained there until his death in 1842.

Multiple grandchildren and the son he lived with in his old age are buried in a small family plot nearby, in the Pryor-Cunningham Family Cemetery. It is thought that William Cunningham is also interred there.