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==Biography==

==Biography==

Descended from a prominent political family, he was a son of the former Thalia Allen Tharp (1843-1872) and [[Milton Joseph Cunningham]], known as Joe Cunningham, a member of both houses of the Louisiana legislature and the state attorney general from 1884 to 1888 and again from 1892 to 1900. W. T.'s mother died at the age of twenty-nine when he was only a year old. Cunningham was reared in his native Natchitoches, where he attended public schools, the preparatory department of [[Tulane University]] in [[New Orleans]], and the Louisiana State Normal School, a teacher-training institution, now [[Northwestern State University]] in Natchitoches. For fourteen years, he was engaged in [[farming]] and stock raising and thereafter retained plantation interests. He studied law at [[Tulane University]] Law School and in 1904 was admitted to the bar before the Louisiana Supreme Court. After a term in the state House of Representatives, during which time he continued his private law practice as well, Cunningham was elected in 1912 as a state judge of the 11th Judicial District Court, encompassing Natchitoches and adjoining Red Rive] parishes.<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=http://www.genealogy.com/users/m/e/t/Mildred-Methvin/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0185.html|title=William Tharp Cunningham|publisher=genealogy.com|accessdate=October 5, 2014}}</ref><ref>[[Alcée Fortier]], ed., ''Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form'' (Volume 3), Century Historical Association, 1914, p. 113</ref>

Descended from a prominent political family, he was a son of the former Thalia Allen Tharp (1843-1872) and [[Milton Joseph Cunningham]], known as Joe Cunningham, a member of both houses of the Louisiana legislature and the state attorney general from 1884 to 1888 and again from 1892 to 1900. W. T.'s mother died at the age of twenty-nine when he was only a year old. Cunningham was reared in his native Natchitoches, where he attended public schools, the preparatory department of [[Tulane University]] in [[New Orleans]], and the Louisiana State Normal School, a teacher-training institution, now [[Northwestern State University]] in Natchitoches. For fourteen years, he was engaged in [[farming]] and stock raising and thereafter retained plantation interests. He studied law at [[Tulane University]] Law School and in 1904 was admitted to the bar before the Louisiana Supreme Court. After a term in the state House of Representatives, during which time he continued his private law practice as well, Cunningham was elected in 1912 as a state judge of the 11th Judicial District Court, encompassing Natchitoches and adjoining Red River parishes.<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=http://www.genealogy.com/users/m/e/t/Mildred-Methvin/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0185.html|title=William Tharp Cunningham|publisher=genealogy.com|accessdate=October 5, 2014}}</ref><ref>Alcée Fortier, ed., ''Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form'' (Volume 3), Century Historical Association, 1914, p. 113</ref>

 

In 1895, Cunningham married Emma Johnson (1874-1963), daughter of James J. Johnson and the former Elizabeth Campbell, who was active in the [[Methodist]] Episcopal Church at the local and state levels.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.genealogy.com/users/m/e/t/Mildred-Methvin/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0461.html|title=Emma Johnson (December 25, 1874 &ndash;October 31, 1963|publisher=genealogy.com|accessdate=October 5, 2014}}</ref> Cunningham, his wife, and other family members are interred at the American Cemetery in Natchitoches.<ref name=bio/>

==References==

==References==

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