Longwood College - Virginian Yearbook (Farmville, VA)

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schools, he knew their needs and entered enthusias- tically into any enterprise that looked to their im- provement. He was intensely interested in educa- tion, a great thinker, an acute observer, and verv far-seeing as to the ultimate effects of a given method of government or of training. These qual- ities combined with practical good sense and judg- ment, a heart as loving and sympathetic as a woman, a manhood pure and unsullied, and an executive ability possessed by few, he brought with him to this work, determined to make of it, not a monument to himself, nor, indeed, the vehicle for the expression of his own opinions, but, in truth, a training-school for teachers, and through them for the youth of otir State. To this end he gave, in more than the ordinary sense, all of himself — his time, his constant care, his trained and thoughtful mind. So en- thusiastic a leader could not fail to infuse energy and stimulate hope. Each year a larger number of untrained women learned from him the true prin- ciples of education, learned to discard unrealities, which simply dazzle, and methods that go on wid- ening and deepening with the year, learned that woman is capable of doing the highest and best work in the field of instruction, and how to do it. His success as an educator and his varied knowl- edge did not pass unrecognized by others than his own pupils, and in 1896 Hampden-Sidney College conferred on him the degree of LL.D. Great as was his work in the class-room, and in moral and intellectual stimulus to every individ- ual who came in close contact with him, this was by no means all. To many, the material improve- ment he wrought around him would seem his great- est work, certainly enough for one man ' s lifetime. His business methods were so effective, and his con- ception and practice of economy so just and true that, with comparatively small means he rebuilt old buildings and added new so rapidly that we learned to expect each summer when we left to find some fresh surprise in the fall, and we were never disap- pointed. The Assembly Hall, the Science Hall, and the Practice School were entire new buildings added during his administration. The main building has been enlarged and renewed, until not one brick of the original structure remains. We do not mean to say that we have actually more and better build- ings than most schools, or, indeed, as handsome as any other State institution, but we believe that few men have expended small means so wisely. His last work was to pull down and rebuild the main building, adding much to the attractiveness and comfort of the whole. A man so many-sided, who could teach any

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which afterwards drew from him the expression so familiar to us all, Young ladies, thank God for pain. While in Nashville, November, 1874, he mar- ried Miss Florence Boyd of that place, who died after little more than a year of most happy married life, leaving a son, Frank, who is now at the East- man Business College. In 1875, when the University of Nashville was bought by the trustees of the Peabody fund, and changed into a training school for teachers, Mr. Cunningham came back to his native city, and i n partnership with Mr. Joe Willis opened a drug- store. His career as a druggist was of short dura- tion. In 1877 he was elected principal of Madison School, Richmond, and again took up the work of school-teaching, for which he was so eminently fitted. With a deep insig ' ht into great principles which underlie subjects apparently superficial, he had the gift of engaging and holding the attention and the interest of his pupils. No subject so dry or tedious, but he could bring it in touch with their common daily life and experience — present his sub- ject in familiar and attractive guise and call into play faculties which the young are prone to applv to games or diversions. In November, 1884, Mr. Cunningham married Miss Martha Eggleston. a daughter of Mr. Stephen Eggleston, whose wife was Miss Martha Miller, of Cumberland. This marriage was the result of long and intimate friendship. Miss Eggleston ' s step- father being Mr. Cunningham ' s favorite uncle, Richard H. Cunningham, of Elkwood. Those who were admitted into the inner circle of his domestic life, felt that here the true man was visible. To his children he was father, friend and playmate ; to his mother-in-law a devoted son ; to his wife, a loving, thoughtful and considerate husband. In 1887 Mr. Cunningham was elected president of the State Female Normal School, in Farmville, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation oi Dr. Rufifner. This position he held until his death and here his best and most enduring work was done. Being a new enterprise, this has been little under- stood in conservative ' irginia, and the difficulties confronting any man at its head were great. It was still in its infancy, when Mr. Cunningham took it in charge, ofifering great opportunities to the women of Virginia, if conducted by a brave, inde- pendent, acti ve man, and original thinker, but, des- tined to failure, if carried on by the weak or the commonplace. Few men could have been better fitted for just this position than Mr. Cunningham, for, having been intimately connected with public

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subject, direct buildings, superintend accounts, reg- ulate expenses, and yet enter heart and soul into the smallest detail of joy or sorrow in the life of each individual about him, must, necessarily, wear out before his time from simple exhaustion of vital force. When we returned in the fall of ' 97, it was under circumstances the most auspicious. The last building, upon which our friend had so set his heart was completed, the prospects for the school were good, and the session had begun with promises the most flattering. We knew not that we were under the shadow of a great cloud. The first announcement of Dr. Cunningham ' s illness caused no alarm, we thought it a slight attack like many he had had before. But in a few days it was only too apparent that all was over. It was like a total eclipse at high noon, sud- denly darkness, deep and dismal, enveloped us. He had lived his life, giving to others the best that was in him, strengthening the weak, cheering the des- ponding, awakening the dull, giving out with every breath more or less nervous force. On the ninth of October his spirit returned to the God who gave it. On Tuesday, the twelfth, he was laid to rest in his own loved cemetery, Hollywood. Surely it is true that the void one ' s departure makes in the world is proportioned to the place one holds in it. Some there are whose voices leave no echo, whose footsteps leave no trace. Others have a person- ality so pervasive that they are always with us, influencing our thoughts, controlling our actions, constraining us to exclaim, There is no death. To this latter class belongs unquestionably the sub ■ ject of our sketch. It is impossible, having known him, to forget him, impossible to efface the impres- sion he, unconsciously, made upon all associated with him. He rests from his labors, but his works do follow him.