Page:One of a thousand.djvu/169

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CUNNIFF. CUNNINGHAM. 155 located in Orleans, with office in Boston. He still continues the business connection, but carries on the general store in his own name. The firm has branch factories in Dennisport and VVellfleet. Mr. Cummings was married in Orleans, September 3, 1862, to Helen C, daughter of Eben H. and Rebecca B. (Crosby) Lin- nell. Of this union are six children : Eben L., Henry K., Francis C, Nellie J., Mary S., and George Cummings. Mr. Cummings has served fifteen years on the school board, four of which he was chairman. He is a director in the Cape Cod National Bank of Harwich. He now resides in Orleans. CUNNIFF, Michael Matthew, son of Michael and Ellen (Kennedy) Cunniff, was born in Roscommon, Ireland, in 1850, his parents coming to Boston when he was three months old. He obtained his early educational training in the public schools of Boston. This was supplemented by a course of commercial training in the Bry- ant & Stratton Commercial College, Bos- ton. His first connection in business was in the wine and spirit trade, with his brother Bernard, in Boston. He subsequently went out of that line to do a general banking and brokerage business, principally in the handling of gas securities. He has also been identified with the West End Street Railway, Charles River Embankment Company, and other land and railroad improvements in Boston and vicinity. Mr. Cunniff was president of the Demo- cratic city committee of Boston two years ; chairman of the executive branch of the Democratic state committee two years ; has been a member of the state committee twelve years ; was a member of the execu- tive council of Governor Ames, 1888, and was renominated, but declined the honor, for 1S89. He is a member of the Charitable Irish Society of Boston ; a director in the Me- chanics National Bank of Boston, having been prominent in its re-organization ; director in the Bay State Gas Company ; one of the foremost capitalists in the organization of the Boston Gas Syndicate, and largely interested in the gas business of Boston. Mr. Cunniff was chief ranger in the In- dependent Order of Foresters : and a member of the Protective Order of Elks. He is also a member of the Montgomery Light Guard Veteran Association. Mr. Cunniff is unmarried. CUNNINGHAM, JAMES ADAMS, son of Nathaniel Fellows and Martha (Putnam) Cunningham, was born in Boston, Novem- ber 27, 1830. He received his educational training at Framingham and Lunenburg academies, and began life for himself as a farmer in Lunenburg. At the opening of the war of the rebel- lion, he entered the service of his country, and from November 1, 1861, to July 1, 1865, he was with his regiment, the 32d Massachusetts volunteers, as lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant-colonel, and brevet-colonel. September 1, 1866, he was JAMES A. CUNNINGHAM brevetted brigadier-general ; commissioned adjutant-general of Massachusetts, with the rank of major-general, December, 1866, resigning January 14, 1879 ; was appointed superintendent of Soldiers' Home in Mas- sachusetts, April, 1882, where he still re- mains, and has his residence in Chel- sea. General Cunningham was in all the cam- paigns of the army of the Potomac, from the Peninsular under McClellan, to the sur- render of the army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox, April 9, 1S65. He has a natural talent, and early dis- played a taste, for the details of military science. As early as 1846 he was commis-