A Woman of Courage on the West Virginia Frontier by Robert N. Thompson Read Free Book Online Page B

Fort had been built. Erected in the summer of 1774, the fort was one of many such structures built for the protection of local settlers. Named for the family on whose land it stood, the fort was located on a small hill above the confluence of Prickett’s Creek with the Monongahela. Typically, when militia scouts sighted signs of an Indian raiding party in the vicinity or when raids became either numerous or persistent in nature, settlers would arrive to “fort up” until the danger subsided. However, on this particular April day, while the network of trails leading to the fort saw many local families heading toward it, they were not seeking shelter from Indian attacks. Rather, they were making the trek via horse, mule or on foot for a much more pleasant reason. There was to be a wedding at the fort, providing a much-needed cause for celebration and merrymaking after a long, hard winter.

    Modern re-creation of the site where Phebe and Thomas Cunningham were married in 1780: Prickett’s Fort at Prickett’s Fort State Park, West Virginia. Photo by the author .
    The couple being married was twenty-four-year-old Thomas Cunningham and his bride, nineteen-year-old Phebe Tucker. 1 Phebe was born in England in 1761 to John Tucker and his wife, Jane Allen Tucker. Her parents were Scots, and her father was born about 1735, while her mother was born around 1740. Beyond that, little is known about her family history. The Tuckers left England for the colonies in 1774, just before the onset of the war for American independence, and family history documents indicate they traveled directly to the frontier of the upper Monongahela Valley. Phebe, who was later remembered by her granddaughter Leah as being “a tiny women and always very charming,” is described as having been a truly lovely young woman with dark red hair, blue-green eyes and a flawless, pale complexion. 2
    However, while little is known about Phebe’s family, the groom and his family have a better-defined history. Thomas Cunningham was born in 1756 in Fairfax County, Virginia, and was the youngest of thirteen children born to Hugh Cunningham and Nancy O’Neil Cunningham. His parents were born in Ireland, and both came to America sometime before their wedding in Fairfax County in 1728. The Cunningham family was part of the Scottish nobility and included men such as Robert Cunningham, the Second Earl of Glencairn, who sat in Parliament in 1489, as well as leaders who fought against the English kings at places such as Flodden Field and Linlithgow. As a result, like many Scots, the Crown eventually exiled the family to Ireland, and in the Cunningham’s case, that exile followed the defeat of the Scottish army during the Second Bishop’s War in 1640. 3
    By the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775, much of Hugh and Nancy Cunningham’s family had left their home in Shenandoah County, with five of their eight sons heading across the mountains to what was then the Virginia frontier. In 1772, Thomas, along with his older brother, Edward, and Edward’s wife, Sarah, arrived in Monongalia County on the Allegheny Plateau. Edward settled on land located along Shinn’s Run, and Thomas found land nearby along the right-hand fork of Ten Mile Creek. Like most local settlers of the time, both men were active in the militia. During Lord Dunmore’s War against the Shawnee in 1774, Edward was a member of Captain Zackwell Morgan’s company while Thomas enlisted with the company of Captain David Scott, with both units assigned to patrol the area around Fort Pitt. Then, in 1777, Thomas would enlist again, this time as a member of Captain James Booth’s company, where he would serve thirteen months as a “spy” searching the forests for signs of Indian activity. 4
    When Thomas and Phebe met is unknown, but their wedding seems to have been a notable occasion for those near Prickett’s Fort. William Haymond, the commander of the fort’s militia company and a justice of the peace