Kinningham Family History

This branch of Kinnninghams is an Appalachian family. Like many who settled into the mountains and hollows of Kentucky, they are of Scots-Irish descent. Family members' claims, as well as the name itself, Kinningham, a form of Cunningham, support this fact. Originally Scottish, the Scots-Irish were beaten down and displaced by the English, and eventually packed off to Ireland where they were promised a better life. Hardships, poverty, religious differences, lack of opportunities and a homeland, forced many to pack up again and leave Ireland behind. Tough people by all accounts, they ended up spanning the globe. There are reports of Kinninghams, carrying that exact spelling of the name, as far as the Caribbean Islands in the 1500's. A great number of these Scots-Irish Americans will come to play vital roles in the wars to come, both in Revolutionary battles and the Civil War, only to return home to the mountains and hollows where they'll breed generations in sequestration.

I have begun a collection of my own infamous Appalachian Kinninghams. Some substantiated, others not. For example, the Kinningham mentioned in a letter, September 30, 1824, by Rev. James A. Dickey, devout abolitionist¹. There are also Kinninghams who fought in the Civl War, on both sides, North, as well as South. One positive relation is the infamous 'Trader" Kinningham who fought for the Yankees. My mother remembers his portrait hanging for many years in the 1950-60's at Union College in Bourborville, Knox County, Kentucky. Going back even further are rumors of Kinninghams fighting in the Revolutionary War, guerrilla warfare style. Typically, these were frontiersmen who belonged to no unit. They would hear of lost or travelling Tories, head out and ambush them or plague their homesteads. The rumors fall in about the time of Cornwallis' march North and the Battle of King's Mountain. So far I've yet to uncover anything which verifies them.

James Kinningham, born to Milly Jane Gambrel and George Kinningham in 1883, is the last fully investigated link I have with this branch of the family. To date I've been unable to hash out the details of Milly Jane Gambrel and George Kinningham due to a rift in the Kentucky family and evidentiary conflicts. With a bit more work and some luck, the exact filial relationship between James Kinningham and the more infamous Kinningham ancestors should work it's way clear.

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^1. Letter available in Rev. John Rankin's book, "Letters on American Slavery; Addressed to Mr. Thomas Rankin, Merchant at Middlebrook, Augusta County, Virginia," (Ohio, 1823; Boston: Garrison & Knapp, 1833;and Isaac Knapp, 5th ed., 1839) Book published again by Negro Press, currently out of print, though available occasionally in used condition through amazon.com.

Note: A lot of what I am currently working with began as a spark from my mother's own memories growing up in Stinking Creek, Kentucky in the 1940's, 50's and 60's. If anyone knows about the Kentucky Kinninghams, the Gambrels, or Stinking Creek, I'd love to hear from you!