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July 4, 2025

John Cunningham – 1797 Disturber of the Peace

In October 1797, Wilkes County jurors presented that on October 2, John Cunningham, laborer, “a person of turbulent temper and disposition” did drink of spiritous liquors until he became drunk. He was so intoxicated that he violently entered the store house of Richard Owens and abused him. “John Cunningham is a common and habitual drunkard so that by his frequent intoxication, he is of vile example and a disturber of the public peace.” Witnesses were Patrick Bray and Jeremiah Crysel.

John Cunningham was indicted at the October 1797 session of Wilkes County court for drunkenness and disturbing the peace.

This case is among the hundreds of court papers that I’ve found recently at the State Archives in Raleigh. I compiled over 200 of these cases into a book titled Before the Bar: Stories from Wilkes County Criminal Court Cases, 1778-1800. The book can be purchased from me, from the Wilkes Heritage Museum gift shop, or online at lulu.com.

The town of Wilkesboro began to take shape in the 1770s even though it was not surveyed and divided into 36 town lots until 1800. It was in May of that year when these newly created lots were auctioned. Richard Owens placed the winning bid for Lot #20 at the price of $124.25. Today, this one-acre lot is at 113 E. Main St. in Wilkesboro, the site of the historic Johnson-Hubbard House which was built in the 1850s. This was diagonally across the street from the Wilkes County courthouse which is now the Wilkes Heritage Museum.

This is almost certainly the same Richard Owens who was attacked by John Cunningham in 1797. We do not know if this was the precise location of Richard Owens’ store in 1797, but he likely had his store at this location after he bought the lot in 1800.

There is one John Cunningham listed consistently in Wilkes County census and tax records from 1784 through 1799, and perhaps he is the man accused of public drunkenness in 1797. The 1798 tax list shows that he was fairly wealthy with 200 acres on Fishing Creek, a 24’ x 16’ dwelling house, a meat house, kitchen, and stables. There were nine family members and two slaves in his household in 1790, and eleven plus five slaves in 1800.

Online family trees show John Cunningham born in 1748 in Lunenburg County, Virginia, and his wife as Keziah Chandler. The 1840 Warren County, Tennessee, census lists John Cunningham as a 93-year-old Revolutionary War veteran. He died in Tennessee in 1842 at the age of 94.

This story of a drunken John Cunningham on the early streets of Wilkesboro uses information from all three of the books that I’ve published in the past year and a half. And it will also factor into the next book that I’m working on about the early evolution of the 50-acre town of Wilkesboro where I will discuss the history of each of the 36 original town lots.

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