[4] He began reading law in Urbana,[2] and was admitted to the bar in June, 1869, and the following month moved to Emporia, Kansas, for the practice of his profession.

[4][2] In 1876, Cunningham met Mason McCarty, also an attorney in Emporia, on a train from Topeka to Burlingame, and from that meeting formed a law partnership lasting for the next fifteen years.

[2] In 1901, Governor William Eugene Stanley appointed Cunningham to one of four newly created seats on the state supreme court.

However, less than a year into the latter term, Cunningham went to a medical facility in Boulder, Colorado, for treatment for an illness, and despite some early signs of recovery, died there on August 16, 1905, at the age of 63.

[2][4] Cunningham married Deborah A. Rowland of Clarksfield, Ohio, in 1867, with whom he had five children, of whom four survived to adulthood.