Biographical & Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria County Pennsylvania, p.361

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OF CAMBRIA COUNTY. 361

whose father was a Revolutionary soldier, was a native of Indiana county, this State, in which county he passed his entire life.
    William Cunningham (father) was also a native of Indiana county, born on August 28, 1831, and resided there until he entered the Civil War. He enlisted in the Federal army, February 4, 1864, in company I, One Hundred and Sixty-second regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer infantry, and was seriously wounded at the battle of the Wilderness, May 5, 1864. He was immediately taken to Fredericksburg hospital, and five days later--May 10--died from the effects of the wound. He was a carpenter by trade, and followed contracting and building all his life. He was a man of good judgment and possessed fine executive abilities--faculties which made him a successful business man. His matrimonial alliance with Catharine Little, a daughter of James and Elizabeth Worrier Little, resulted in the birth of eight children: Elizabeth; Dusanna; John, subject; Catharine; Isabella; James, a farmer of Davis, Indiana county; Sadie M., the wife of D. M. Black, also of Davis; William and Winona.
    John Cunningham acquired his mental training in the public schools of Indiana county, and after leaving school, in 1871, embarked in lumbering in Cambria township, Cambria county. In 1876 he purchased a farm of three hundred acres in that township, upon which he resided until February, 1895, when he removed to Vintondale, being the second citizen of that village. Immediately after locating there he engaged in lumbering, furnishing timber at the rate of ten thousand feet per day, to Baker Brothers, lumber manufacturers of Ebensburg.
    Mr. Cunningham is a member of Blacklick Lodge, No. 1088, I.0.0.F., and Camp No. 227, Sons of Veterans, of Ebensburg, of which he is a past commander. He is a republican in politics, and was elected justice of the peace, of Vintondale, in February, 1895.
    August 12, 1872, the nuptials were celebrated which made Mr. Cunningham and Miss Sallie A. Helman, a daughter of Samuel Helman, of Indiana county, husband and wife. Their marriage has been blessed in the birth of twelve children: Robert R., an electric engineer of Indiana county; Etta P., wife of John Huffman, of Vintondale; William C., Samuel C., Inez, James, Charles, George, Cora, and Norman, are at home with their parents and Nora A., and Winfield S., are deceased.

FRANK J. CHRISTY, a man who has taken an active part in the development of Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, is a son of Francis X. and Susan (McConnell) Christy, and was born in Allegheny township, Cambria county, May 17, 1838. His grandfather, Archibald Christy, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, emigrated to this country when quite a young man, and was one of the pioneer settlers of western Pennsylvania. He located first in Butler county, Pennsylvania, and later removed to a farm in Allegheny township, which, at that time, was a wilderness. But Mr. Christy was one of those sturdy Scotchmen who recognized no insurmountable difficulties, and he set to work with an energy characteristic of his race to clear his farm, and establish a comfortable home for himself and family. He served in the second war for Independence in 1812-14, and died in Allegheny township. His maternal grandfather, Francis McConnell, was a native of Maryland, but early in life removed to Blair county, Pennsylvania, where he lived the remainder of his life.

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