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Matamoras Minute: Cunningham Exposition Shows

Photo provided by Larry and Gay Tilton Valentine. The vehicle in this photo announced the arrival of the Cunningham Exposition Shows as it drove through the streets of the hosting town. One can imagine the music accompanying the voice sounding out the call to assemble on the appropriate grounds.

The surname Cunningham brings to mind another prominent enterprise associated with Matamoras. That would be the Cunningham Exposition Shows.

Robert H. Cunningham, the subject of last week’s column, had a brother, James, who was the grandfather of six boys through his son William, AKA “Apple Butter,” Cunningham. One of those boys was John, born in 1893.

John engaged in a number of early occupations. As a young man, he and his brother, Jim, traded and sold horses. They would frequently conduct this activity at fairs throughout the region.

John married Arra Ellen Shaw and owned a small tobacco factory on the lot where their home stood on Fourth Street. He also was proprietor to a combination restaurant/pool hall in Matamoras. But at some point John spun off into ownership of a food concession. Having acquaintances from his horse trading days at fairs and with this concession stand, it was an easy step to traveling to nearby events and thus building his bank account. He then expanded to ownership of a pony ride. In 1930, as his interest in entertaining the public grew, he purchased his first mechanical ride, a merry-go-round, and started his own multi-attraction enterprise.

The merry-go-round was an Allan Herschell ride made in North Tonawanda, New York. It was hand-carved by wood craftsmen and 30 feet in diameter. Consisting of twenty horses, they were two abreast with two chariots completing the ride capacity. Then in 1938 the Cunninghams bought their famous ferris wheel, Big Eli, from Eli Bridge, located in Jacksonville, Illinois.

John and Arra’s family grew into four children. They were Dorothy, Hilda, Claude, and John, Jr. Due to heart health problems of John Jr., they spent winters in Florida to give him relief from the cold months in Ohio. The boy died in 1941 when he was 14 years old during an amusement engagement at City Park in Parkersburg, W.Va.

By 1940 John and Arra were living in the former Stover house on Broadway. In this purchase they acquired the famed Stover building across the street along with other lots that comprised the Stover properties. They later bought the property of the Philip and Caroline Lohr Karcher farm on Cemetery Road.

Dorothy married James Tilton Sr. and Hilda married Orville Smith. Through these marriages the surnames of Tilton and Smith came to be included with Cunningham in the amusement industry so closely associated with Matamoras.

John Miller is president of the Matamoras Area Historical Society. Membership dues are $15 per year single/couple. Life membership is $150. Contact the society at P.O. Box 1846, New Matamoras, Ohio 45767. Much of this column is built on the work of Matamoras’ historian, the late Diana McMahan. And much of the information in this particular article today is due to Larry and Gay Tilton Valentine.

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