Matthew Cunningham (1782?–1854)

Matthew Cunningham was the first mayor of Little Rock (Pulaski County) and the first physician to permanently reside in the city.

Matthew Cunningham was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, likely on July 5, 1782. His father was Robert Cunningham, and his mother’s name is thought to be Sarah Cunningham. Further details about his parents and childhood are unknown. In February 1808, he graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, the first medical school in the United States. While there, he studied with such notable physicians as Benjamin Rush, Caspar Wistar, and Philip Physick. Cunningham may have practiced medicine in Philadelphia for a brief time before setting off on a tour of European hospitals to continue his medical studies.

After returning to the United States, Cunningham moved to the city of New Orleans in the Territory of Orleans and then to New York. He met Eliza Wilson Bertrand in New York City, where they married on October 17, 1811, in a ceremony at the First and Second Presbyterian Church. Eliza was the widow of coffee plantation owner Pierre Bertrand, who was the brother of Count Henri Bertrand, Grand Marshal of the Palace to Napoleon Bonaparte. Eliza and Bertrand had two children, Arabella Jane and Charles Pierre. Eliza and Matthew Cunningham had five children: Robert, Sarah, Henrietta, Chester, and Matilda.

Cunningham served as a surgeon in the War of 1812, possibly as a volunteer in the New York Militia. In September 1814, he applied for an appointment as a U.S. Army surgeon, but it is uncertain if he received one. In 1817, the Cunningham family moved to the town of Herculaneum, about twenty-five miles south of St. Louis, in the Territory of Missouri. Two years later, Cunningham visited Arkansas Post in the newly established Arkansas Territory, and in February 1820 arrived at what he called “Point of Rocks,” later to become Little Rock. His family joined him in September 1820. On March 21, 1821, Cunningham purchased a lot on the southwest corner of what is now Third and Main Streets on which to build the family’s permanent home. That same year, he also built a small log building about 100 yards east of the Quapaw Line that was used as the first schoolhouse in Little Rock.

Cunningham practiced medicine in Little Rock from 1820 until 1846. In 1820, only ten to thirteen single white men were living and working in several log buildings or huts in the vicinity of the “little rock” on the south bank of the Arkansas River. Contemporary newspapers show that he undertook other work to support his family, including operating a drugstore, serving as the local coroner, and renting out rooms in the family’s home to “gentlemen boarders.”

Cunningham was elected the first mayor of Little Rock on January 2, 1832, after the town was incorporated on November 7, 1831. He received twenty-five votes, while his opponent, the Reverand William Stevenson, received fifteen votes. The first town council meeting was held in Cunningham’s home. (In 1931, the Little Rock City Council Centennial Committee placed a commemorative marker at the site, then occupied by the Fulk Building at 300 Main Street.)

Cunningham was also a member of the town’s first temporary board of health, which was formed in November 1832 in response to a cholera epidemic in the Arkansas Territory. He and four other doctors on the health board examined passengers on boats and other modes of transport upon arrival to try to prevent an outbreak in Little Rock. The board also set up the first temporary hospital in the town by arranging to rent a house where infected persons could be treated and could recuperate.

Cunningham and his stepson Charles Bertrand were involved in two lengthy legal disputes related to land ownership in Little Rock. Determination of land ownership had become chaotic as early settlers of the Arkansas Territory made competing claims under floating rights, preemption rights, and New Madrid certificates. In the first lawsuit, Cunningham v. Ashley, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1852 in favor of Cunningham’s preemption rights claim for eighty acres over the defendants’ claims based on New Madrid certificates. The dismissal in 1859 of the second lawsuit, Lytle v. the State of Arkansas, et al., by the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a prior ruling by the Arkansas Supreme Court in the defendants’ favor. The rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court in these cases reinforced the principle of preemption rights for land claims and the authority of courts to overturn land titles issued by federal land officers based on false claims.

Cunningham died on June 14, 1854, after having suffered from sporadic paralysis since 1840. He is buried in the Hanger family plot at Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock, which also includes the graves of his wife Eliza; his two stepchildren; his son Chester Ashley Cunningham; and his daughter Matilda Hanger, who married Peter Hanger in June 1850.

For additional information:
“Death of Dr. Cunningham.” True Democrat, June 20, 1854, p. 2.

“Excerpts, concerning the case of Lytle and Wife vs. Arkansas, 1852.” J. N. Heiskell Historical Collection (UALR.MS.0241). Center for Arkansas History and Culture. University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, Arkansas. Finding aid online at https://arstudies.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/search/searchterm/UALR.MS.0241 (accessed July 21, 2026).

Ross, Margaret. “The Cunninghams: Little Rock’s First Family.” Pulaski County Historical Review 31 (Summer 1983): 29–33.

———. “Little Rock’s First Lady Resident Arrived in 1820, Bore City’s First Child in 1822.” Arkansas Gazette, January 15, 1967, p. 6E.

Roy, Hampton, Charles Witsell Jr., and Cheryl G. Nichols. How We Lived: Little Rock as an American City. Little Rock: August House, 1984.

Myra Suzanne Easley
Little Rock, Arkansas