Late in 1899, James (Jim) Monroe Cunningham moved to Oakville from Devine and bought the Live Oak County Leader. He soon married Sara Emma (O'Neal), and they began a family. When Oakville was bypassed by the San Antonio Uvalde and Gulf Railroad, Cunningham moved his family and business seven miles west to Hamiltonburg, later named Three Rivers. There he contracted the first permanent home in the new town, where most dwellings were temporary tent-like structures. George D. Smith built the Cunningham home and completed it in September 1913. The practical one-story, five-room frame house with a wood shingled roof combined Contemporary Prairie and Foursquare styles with elements of Victorian design. A large enclosed hallway running from front door to back door and twelve-foot ceilings created a convection effect that carried cool southerly coastal breezes through the house. Its spacious interior often became a focal point for community social events. The Cunningham family contributed to Three Rivers by owning and editing the area's weekly newspaper, first as the Live Oak County Leader and then as the Three Rivers News, serving on the first school board and leading school accreditation, helping organize the first Baptist church, and providing musical instruction and mentoring. In its first 100 years, the house survived twenty floods, the Atlantic Gulf Hurricane of 1919, and Hurricane Beulah in 1967, and it embodies the development of the south Texas town of Three Rivers.