CUNNINGHAM, TEXAS. Cunningham is on Farm Road 196 near the North Sulphur River, twenty miles southeast of Paris in southeastern Lamar County. The town was named for Sam Cunningham, a landowner who encouraged settlement in the community. Its post office was established in 1912. By 1915 the population had risen to 350, and the town included two churches, a newspaper called the Inland Journal, three general stores, a printer, a sawmill, and a physician. The number of residents had decreased to 200 by the 1940s and continued to decline slowly. In the 1980s Cunningham had three churches, a school, a few businesses, and a population of 110, which remained at that level in 2000.

John M. Santry