This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Cunningham-Shinn-Gay Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/kg.2ADI/1723 Message Board Post: Pike County Republican October 8, 1947 Descendant of Pike Pioneers Died Saturday Mrs. Mary Shinn Cunningham, decendant of Pike County pioneers of 1820, who celebrated her 88th birthday last February 5, died in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Orbie Willard at 419 S. Memorial Ave., Saturday night. She had been ill only a day. A reporter for The Republican interviewed Mrs. Cunningham ib the evening of her 88th birthday and for an hour was entertained by the recollections of this pioneer woman whose grandparents, Daniel and Mary Hackett Shinn, in the spring of 1820 brought out of the east the first wagon that ever rolled on the soil of Pike. "I'm glad I'm alive", she told the reporter that day, recounting her blessings, good health, good appetite, I can eat anything and everthing agrees with me, she said, rejoicing also in her many good friends, a number of whom had enjoyed with her that day a great birthday dinner prepared for her by Mrs. Obie Willard in whose home she had been living for nearly two years following her husband's death and the selling of her town property on Piper Lane. She had been living in Pittsfield upwards 28 years. I have alot to be thankful for, she said, "I can read and enjoy myself. I have seen many changes worth living to see. What changes there have been in my time, they are wonderful. I wonder if greater changes are ahead than the ones I have seen. I am a farmer, she said, ( she owned two farms and was brought up on a great Pike county farm) "One of the greatest changes I have seen in my time is the change in the way of farming. One can accomplish so much more in so much less time than when I was a girl on the farm." Mrs. Cunningham had a retentive memory. Her mind was equally alert, concerning events of current history. She delighted in watching history as it was being made. Mrs. Cunningham's parents were William and Mary Jane Lytle Shinn. Her father died at the age of 89. He founded the sheep industry in Pike County. Over his broad lands near Summer Hill ranged the largest sheep herds of those days. Her grandparents, the Daniel Shinns, came to the vicinity og what is now Altas in the early spring of 1820. There in the wilderness, they pitched a tent. Therein the endurred the chill winds of the early season. They had a family and now for the first time in the region that is now Pike was heard the prattle of little children and their shoutings at play. The Rosses, founders of present Altas, (first known as Ross's Settlement) had not yet begun their long trek westward from the vicinity of Pittsfield, Mass. Back in the early 1820's Mrs. Cunningham's forebears were thr forerunners of the mighty breed that was heading this way out of the east, seeking elbow room in what was then called the far west. I have neither father , mother, sister, brother, said Mrs. Cunningham on her 88th birthday. But I have two nephews who are mighty good to me. She named the two nephews, Charles Shinn of Summer Hill and Claude Shinn then of Mendon, later of Tucson Ariz. She talked about the Gay boys, Fred and Lute and Wid (sons of her sister Mae in whose family were four doctors. Mrs. Cummingham was a widow of William Cunningham, a prominent Summer Hill farmer. He died a number of years ago. In her home she raised a little girl to womanhood, Miss Nona Earls who married the late Earl McKnight and who is now deceased. Mrs. Cunningham was born in Martinsburg township. She told the reporter that her first schooling was at Prarie Mound and her first teacher was Lucy Hartwell, now dead. She was a staunch member of the Methodist church in Pittsfield. She was the last of her family. She was a twin, her twin brother, Daniel, named for the pioneer grandfather, died. Funeral service are being held in the Pittsfield Methodist church this Wednesday afternoon, in charge of Rev. Gordon White, the church pastor. Entombment will be in the mausoleum at the West Cemetery.