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John Francis CUNNINGHAM was born on 21 Sep 1842 in Irremore or Mountcoal, Lixnaw, Co. Kerry. He died on 23 Jun 1919 in Concordia, Kansas. He was buried in Nazareth Motherhouse Cemetery, Concordia, Kansas.
According to family sources John was sent to the United States at the age of 12 following the eviction of the family from their farm in Mountcoal, Listowel. However, The Kerryman newspaper tells us in its edition of 30 Ocober 1915 that John emigrated to the States at the age of 18 with his parents. What is certain is that John studied for the priesthood at St. Benedict's College in Atchison, Kansas and was ordained a priest at St. Francis Seminary, Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1865. In 1898 he was consecrated Bishop of Concordia in Leavenworth, Kansas.
According to an obituary in The Kerryman newspaper of 12 May 1934 Bishop Cunningham had a relative (exact type unspecified) named Sr. Agnes Flynn of Main St., Abbeyfeale, who died in Topeka, Kansas in 1934 following eight years of illness. I have not been able to establish exactly how the Flynns and Cunninghams were connected but here is some information on the Flynn family from Sr. Agnes's obituary:
Sr. Agnes was born on 11 January 1860 in Abbeyfeale and went to Kansas in 1880. Two years later she entered the Sisters of Charity convent. She was primarily a teacher and spent a period of time teaching the children of silver and gold miners in "two [states] in the Rocky Mountain region". She also worked in hospitals and was superioress of St. John's Hospital, Leavenworth, Kansas and St. Vincent's Hospital in Billings, Montana.
There were four siblings of Sr. Agnes mentioned in the obituary: her brother, John, of Tarbert, Co. Kerry and three sisters who were also members of the Sisters of Charity order: Sr. Anacleta of St. Mary's College, Leavenworth, Sr. Mary Joseph of Immaculata High School, Leavenworth and Sr. Mary Evangelist of Annunciata High School, Denver, Colorado. In an account of the Golden Jubilee celebrations in Leavenworth of both Sr. Agnes and Sr. Anacleta in The Kerryman two years earlier, in 1932, we are told that among the attendees were their brothers William and James, sisters Mary Flynn and Mrs. William Blake, and cousin Rev. John Fitzgerald. This perhaps indicates that these relatives lived in the United States; and because Bishop Cunningham's mother was a Fitzgerald perhaps Sr. Agnes and the bishop were related through the Fizgeralds. The newspaper account of the jubilee celebrations also tells us that "other cousins from Ireland included William and Rodney McAuliffe and Miss Mary McAuliffe" and that four sisters of Sr. Agnes and Sr. Anacleta entered the Sisters of Charity order in Leavenworth, although we have names of only two (Mary Flynn and Mrs. William Blake, mentioned above). |
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