University of North Carolina Chapel Hill - Yackety Yack Yearbook (Chapel Hill, NC)

Page 12 text:

When Gov. Fowle was inaugurated, he appointed him the senior mem- ber of his staff, with the rank of colonel, and when Gov. Holt succeeded to the gubernatorial office, he requested Col. Cuniiigham to retain his position on the staff. Col. Cuningham has an excellent library and takes great intere st in history and literature. He has also quite a reputation as an orator, and is known as an eloquent and forcible speaker. One of his most celebrated addresses was that on the subject of Tobacco, and was delivered at the Farmers ' National and Pan-American Agricultural Congress, held during the Cotton States and International Exposition, ' ' in Atlanta, in 1895. He has been in great demand in every part of the country as a speaker on literary, agricultural and political questions, and has thus made himself known through- out the nation, besides taking special interest in education, immigration and other cjuestions of the day. Col. Cuningham for many years steadily refused to become a candidate for any political office, though many fine opportunities presented themseh ' es, but being finally persuaded to accept the candidacy for the State Legislature, he was elected in November, 1896. He was the caucus nominee and candidate of the Democrats for Speaker of the House, being supported by legislators representing 145,000 votes, and was only defeated by the fusion of the Republican and Populist forces. Although a patriotic man in the national sense of the word, he is pre- eminently a North Carolinian, and is always glad to aid his nati e State by every honorable means. Thus Col. Cuningham now stands as the exponent of the Old South and the New South, and his Alma Mater may well point to him as one of her noblest sons, and also a true type of the cul- tured Southern gentleman of today.

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Col. ' ohn S. Cuninsbam, COL. JOHN SOMERVILLE CUNINGHAM was born in Warrenton, N. C, September 5, 1861, and is a son of the late Hon. John W. Cun- ingham, who was for more than thirty years a member of the House and Senate of North Carohna, and was long accounted the most influential citizen in Person County. After a thorough course at the famous Horner School, at Oxford, and Bingham School, at Mebane, the subject of this sketch entered the University of North Carolina, and there completed an excellent education. Although one would judge that the talents and tastes of Col. Cuningham tended toward a professional career, still with rare intuition he chose as his field of labor, the management and improvement of his large inherited estate, intending by this means to demonstate the superiority of Eastern North Caro- lina in agriculture over other sections of the country, and especially for the raising of the celebrated golden leaf variety of tobacco. Col. Cuningham was well equipped for his sphere of life, being the possessor of large wealth, a host of friends, great intelligence, a keen business insight and pleasing manners. As might well be expected, he immediately achieved success, and has become one of the foremost planters in the South. He has introduced new methods into farming, and by his active interest and example has improved the agricultural interests, not only of his own State, but of the entire South. As a recognition of his leadership in this line of life, Col. Cuningham had the honor conferred upon him of being chosen to preside over the large assembly of prominent agriculturalists, known as the Interstate Farmers ' Convention, which met at Danville, Va., in F ebruary, 1888. Col. Cuningham was a delegate to the Paris Exposition in 1889, and traveled exten vely abroad, visiting France, England, Scotland and Ireland, and carefully comparing the condition of the laboring classes of these countries with those of our own. Although always attending strictly to business affairs. Col. Cuningham has taken an active part in political matters, being known as one of the lead- ing Democrats of the State. In 1889 he was married to Miss Otelia M. Car- rington, of Virginia, daughter of Col. Henry A. Carrington, of the Confederate Army. 5 00

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W. L. Kluttz, i . r. A. p. D. Gold, Jr., K. S. DARIUS BATMAN, K. A. Business M Ti Sfcrs. Wm. Starr Myers, B. 0. U. Edward K. Graham, :£. A. E. C. S. Carr, :£. N. Hssociatc Gditors. Harry S. Lake, A. K. E. Richard H. Lewis, Jr., Z. . E. S. Askew, t . A. 0. O. M. Suttle, n. K. A. W. D. Simpson, :S. X. W. H. Bagley, A. T. O.