John Cunneen

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John Cunneen (May 18, 1848 near Ennis, County Clare, Ireland - February 21, 1907 Buffalo, Erie County, New York) was an American lawyer and politician.

[edit] Life

He came to the United States when 14 years old to live with relatives at Albion, NY. He graduated from Albion Academy in 1870, and began the study of law at the office of John H. White at Albion. He was admitted to the bar in 1874, and commenced practice in Albion. He was a member of the Board of Education of the Village of Albion, and for seven years was Clerk to the Board of Supervisors of Orleans County. On January 26, 1876, he married Elizabeth A. Bass.

In 1890, he removed to Buffalo and formed a partnership with William F. Sheehan and Charles F. Tabor in the firm of Sheehan, Tabor, Cunneen & Coatsworth. In 1894, he became the senior member of Cunneen & Coatsworth. He was a delegate to the 1892 Democratic National Convention. In 1902, he was elected New York State Attorney General on the Democratic and Prohibition tickets, and was the only Democrat in the cabinet of Governor Benjamin Odell. He ran for re-election in 1904 but was defeated.

He died of pneumonia, and was buried at St. Joseph's Cemetery in Albion, like his brother Cornelius Cunneen (1868-1890) who had drowned in the Erie Canal.

[edit] Sources

[1] Obit in NYT on February 22, 1907
[2] Political Graveyard
[3] Bio from Our County and It's People - a descriptive work on Erie County, New York edited by Truman C. White (The Boston History Company, 1898)
[4] His brothers death notice, in The Medina Tribune on October 9, 1890
[5] Burials at St. Joseph's Cemetery, at rootsweb
[6] List of New York Attorneys General, at Office of the NYSAG