Cunningham Home

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Cunningham Home in Live Oak County. Late in 1899, a man named James Monroe Cunningham, went by Jim, packed up and moved from Devine to Oakville. He bought the Live Oak County Leader, a weekly newspaper, and started putting down roots.

He married Sara Emma O'Neal, they began a family, and for a moment it looked like Oakville was going to be their forever town. Then the San Antonio Uvalde and Gulf Railroad came through, and it bypassed Oakville entirely. When a railroad skips your town in that era, you feel it.

Jim Cunningham felt it. So he did what a practical man does. He moved his family and his business seven miles west to a place called Hamiltonburg, a town that would later be named Three Rivers.

Now, most folks arriving in Hamiltonburg were living in temporary tent-like structures, which tells you something about how new and raw that settlement was. Cunningham contracted the first permanent home in the new town. Let that sit for a second.

The first permanent home. A man named George D. Smith took the contract and built it, completing the house in September of 1913.

What he delivered was a pragmatic one-story, five-room frame house with a wood shingled roof, and it was no plain box. It pulled from contemporary Prairie and Foursquare styles, with elements of Victorian woven in for good measure. The designers knew their Texas weather, too.

A large enclosed hallway ran straight through from the front door to the back door, and the ceilings stretched up twelve feet. That combination created a convection effect, drawing cool southerly coastal breezes all the way through the house. On a South Texas summer day, that's not a luxury.

That's engineering. The home's spacious interior became a focal point for community social events, a gathering place for the new town finding its footing. And the Cunninghams kept giving to Three Rivers.

Jim owned and edited the Live Oak County Leader and then the Three Rivers News. The family served on the first school board and worked toward school accreditation. They helped organize the First Baptist Church.

They offered musical instruction and mentoring to the community around them. Now, a house that means that much to a town tends to get tested, and this one was tested hard. In its first hundred years, the Cunningham Home survived twenty floods.

Twenty. And it survived the Atlantic Gulf Hurricane of 1919, and then Hurricane Beulah in 1967. It's still standing.

One pragmatic, five-room frame house, first permanent home in a brand-new Texas town, and it outlasted all of it.

What the marker says

JAMES AND SARA CUNNINGHAM HOUSE LATE IN 1899 JAMES (JIM) MONROE CUNNINGHAM MOVED TO OAKVILLE FROM DEVINE AND BOUGHT THE LIVE OAK COUNTY LEADER. CUNNINGHAM SOON MARRIED SARA EMMA (O'NEAL) AND THEY BEGAN A FAMILY. WHEN OAKVILLE WAS BYPASSED BY THE SAN ANTONIO UVALDE AND GULF RAILROAD (SAU&G), CUNNINGHAM MOVED HIS FAMILY AND BUSINESS SEVEN MILES WEST TO HAMILTONBURG (LATER NAMED THREE RIVERS). HE THEN CONTRACTED THE FIRST PERMANENT HOME IN THE NEW TOWN AS MOST DWELLINGS WERE TEMPORARY TENT-LIKE STRUCTURES. GEORGE D. SMITH CONTRACTED TO BUILD THE CUNNINGHAM HOME AND COMPLETED IT IN SEPTEMBER 1913. THE PRAGMATIC ONE-STORY, FIVE-ROOM FRAME HOUSE WITH WOOD SHINGLED ROOF INCORPORATED SEVERAL ARCHITECTURAL STYLES, INCLUDING CONTEMPORARY PRAIRIE AND FOURSQUARE WITH ELEMENTS OF VICTORIAN. A LARGE ENCLOSED HALLWAY EXTENDING FROM THE FRONT DOOR TO THE BACK DOOR AND TWELVE FOOT CEILINGS CREATED A CONVECTION EFFECT PERMITTING COOL SOUTHERLY COASTAL BREEZES THROUGHOUT THE HOUSE. THE HOME'S SPACIOUS INTERIOR OFTEN SERVED AS THE FOCAL POINT FOR MANY SOCIAL EVENTS IN THE COMMUNITY. THE CUNNINGHAM FAMILY MADE NUMEROUS CONTRIBUTIONS TO THREE RIVERS THROUGH OWNING AND EDITING THE AREA'S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER, THE LIVE OAK COUNTY LEADER (AND THEN THE THREE RIVERS NEWS), SERVICE ON THE FIRST SCHOOL BOARD AND LEADERSHIP IN SCHOOL ACCREDITATION, ORGANIZATION OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, AND MUSICAL INSTRUCTION AND MENTORING. THIS HISTORIC HOME, WHICH IN ITS FIRST 100 YEARS SURVIVED TWENTY FLOODS AND THE ATLANTIC GULF HURRICANE OF 1919 AND HURRICANE BEULAH IN 1967, EMBODIES THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTH TEXAS TOWN OF THREE RIVERS.