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Elizabeth Beal's
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David grew up in the northeastern part of Spencer, Massachusetts. His father bought land in "Township No. 5" in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, perhaps with the idea that his sons David and John, Jr., would settle there. They bought it from their father in 1770, each taking pairs of lots, when David is described as already living there.1
The land David bought in 1770 and more adjacent to it in 1773 was likely the property on which he later lived with his family. There's no known record of David and Elizabeth Beal's marriage, but it was surely in "Plantation No. 5," which became the town of Cummington, about 1778. That was also the home of her parents.
David joined the militia company of Cummington resident Lieut. Joseph Warner as a "Minute Man." They marched on 21 April 1775 in response to the British attack at Lexington and Concord.2 The company was at Concord in late April, where at least some of the company, including David, were absorbed into the 17th Massachusetts "New England Army" regiment, a part of what would become the United States army. Army organization was juggled and the 17th became the 8th Regiment of Foot in August 1775. They joined the Siege of Boston in Roxbury and Dorchester. On 26 May, to create a better command order, what was known as the New England Army officially became the "Continental" Army. No record has been found of how long David served, but he's on a muster roll in the same company at Dorchester as late as November 1775. He was in a regiment raised by Capt. William Ward in Plantation No. 5 to respond to the alarm of the so-called Battle of Bennington. The battle was in Waloomsac, New York, about fifty miles from Cummington, on 16 August 1777.3 Ward's company was formed the day after. News of the battle likely reached Cummington either on the 16th or 17th. General Burgoyne marched his army toward Walloomsac when he heard of the battle, suggesting the Cummington regiment marched in anticipation of further conflict. They are credited for having served for five days, being dismissed on 22 August. This likely took them to or close to Walloomsac and back right away.
The Cuninghams farmed in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains for over twenty years. After the Revolution, a mass migration took place west from New England. The fertile land of Central New York that became available for settlement attracted thousands of settlers and many Cummington families moved there. The Cuninghams settled in Richfield in Otsego County by the time David bought land there in 1799.4 He appears there with a house and farm in 1799 in the first state-wide tax assessment record.5 The exact site of their home hasn't been found, but it's no longer standing. David and Elizabeth are buried under delicately carved headstones in the Hillside Cemetery, located on a knoll with panoramic views of the countryside.
children of David Cuningham and Elizabeth Beal (*Cummington vital records, otherwise in the Cunningham family Bible6):
i. Elizabeth, b. 8 November 1779*
ii. Anna, b. 30 May 1781*
iii. Huldah, b. 28 November 1782,*
iv. Azubah, b. 31 August 1784,* no further record (Zubial in the C. Bible)
v. John, b. 15 February 1786*
vi. David, b. abt. 1788
vii. Abigail, b. abt. 1790
viii. Polly, b. prob. December 1791
ix. Sarah, b. abt. 1795
vital records sources: his birth is from "Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988," ancestry.com database online, Spencer, Birth, Marriages and Death [sic], image 156, original mss not paginated. See also Vital records of Spencer, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849 (Worcester:Franklin P. Rice, 1909), 34. His death date is on his gravestone in Twilight Rest (formerly Hillside) Cemetery, Richfield, NY.
1. Hampden County, MA, deeds, 9:217, 9:218, 10:226, 10:228.
2. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, vol. 4 (Boston: 1898), 230.
3. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, 4:227, 230.
4. Otsego Co., NY, deeds, E:518-519.
5. "New York Tax Assessment Rolls of Real and Personal Estates, 1799-1804," ancestry.com database online.
6.The Cunningham Bible has a family record, written in several different hands, no birth dates for these siblings. It was likely written by Horatia B. Cunningham since there are errors that her mother wouldn't have made.