Thomas studied the fields. He read them as he had for over 35 years. Each season came on the heel of the one before it, waiting its turn. Harvest was at the horizon, and in a few weeks, each broomcorn head would need to be pulled. His hands rough yet careful, his knife’s blade would scrape down each corn stalk to save the seeds for the next year. He watched his wife through the window turn through the pages of the Bible. It was a massive book; it was the best his money could buy. Golden pictures of angels and disciples filled the pages. She turned another page.

The Cunningham family Bible is an impressive volume for a family of farmers. It features 2,248 pages, well intact with a red and a black ribbon bookmark. With a length of 12.5 inches and a width of 10.5 inches, the Bible is just large enough to conceal a piece of letter paper. The family Bible cover consists of leather and gold foil imprints. The added support from a restoration effort of the Koerperich Bookbindery in Selden, Kansas, may have added a centimeter to the edges of the worn leather cover. The cover features the faded ornate lettering “Holy Bible” above a golden imprint of the Roman Empire. The Bible’s width remains at its original 4.25 inches. Thicker than three volumes of the 

Norton Anthology of American Literature, the edges of the brown pages are marked with dark stains. The binding announces rich, multilayered contents: “The Parallel Bible,” “Bible Dictionary” and “Cities of the Bible.” Inside, a reprint of the 1611 King James Version (KJV), or the “Authorized” version, is paired with the 1881 “revised” version, known today as the English Revised Version (ERV). This parallel edition provided the eloquence of the past with the ease of contemporary language.

Since the seventeenth century, Americans have longed for an updated edition of the King James Version. In the years following its publication in 1611, the English language had continued to morph and evolve, yet the text of the KJV had not. In An American Bible, Paul C. Gutjahr explores the many attempts to create a linguistically updated edition of the Bible. In fact, Gutjahr notes that it would take “over a decade to complete” the revised work (Gutjahr 110). “The sixty-seven British scholars who were involved in the revision worked together with a thirty-four member American revision committee” Gutjahr counts, “headed by the German Reformed scholar and devoted ec-umenist Philip Schaff.” The transatlantic involvement in the English Revised Version illustrates a hunger for a more intimate and understandable Gospel than the common King James Version. This tradition continues to the twenty-first century, as Barnes and Noble and independent Christian bookstores alike sell Bible translations like The Message: the Bible in Contemporary Language, a text composed by one author that focuses on idiomatic paraphrase, rather than literal translation (The Message). From colonial America to the antebellum years, Americans craved a better glimpse of their God.

But despite this hunger, American Christians were quick to dismiss Bible translations that were considered inaccurate or not “true” enough. This explains why nearly one hundred specialists worked for over ten years to create the ERV. Gutjahr argues that the significance of the ERV was that it “offered American Protestants a serious choice for the first time about which core text would inhabit their bibles” (110). Much  like the Puritans choose between the Geneva Bible and the King James Version for their personal readings, American Protestants choose the older, more familiar “virgin” King James Version. Yet due to the initial fascination with the ERV, the version was not a complete loss; it created the opportunity for publishers to consider more translations, which had not been welcomed before.

One common production of the ERV was in concordance with the King James Version, especially after the growing popularity of family Bibles due to The National Publishing Company’s efforts in the 1870’s (Gutjahr). These Bibles contained not only the scriptures, but also extensive notes and supplemental materials like Bible dictionaries, Cities of the Bible, and family genealogy, imitating “biblical encyclopedias” (Gutjahr). 

The Cunningham family Bible was printed in Kansas City in 1885, making one of the first rounds of publications with the complete ERV, and one of the few paralleled to the KJV. The antique stands as a culture reference to an influential time period in Protestant culture. The Cunningham Family Bible  would have sold for about $15 U.S. dollars in 1885, or $383.11 today (Gutjahr)(Inflation). Not a terribly expensive investment, family Bibles were an opportunity for the rising lower class to insert themselves into a higher culture that involved literacy, further learning and education. Proverbs from the KJV were frequently quoted, and could give the family a cultural edge. Most importantly, the family genealogy pages promised a remembrance of themselves, a class of common people, traditionally considered historically insignificant. 

In addition to promoting literacy and elegance, the family Bible gave importance to the lives of the owners. Thomas and Margaret Cunningham’s history are described in detail on the Memoranda page. The marketing strategy of family Bibles was that they were a treasure to be passed down to future generations. In writing one’s life story within it, each family member became immortalized, to be remembered long after their children and grandchildren perished. A strong mourning culture emerged in nineteeth-century America during the Civil War Era and expanded with the influence of mourning culture in Victorian England. Americans became interested in death and morning, which also encouraged remembrances. Just as the ERV temporarily quenched Christians’ thirst for a more palpable and American vernacular scripture, the geneoligically driven family Bible responded to the hope of mortals to be memorialized.  

The Bible page entitled “Memoranda” reads,

"Thomas Cunningham. He was borned in Nashville Tennessee June 13, 1833 and married Margaret Jane Henery Aug 30, 1854 at Marysville, Decalb Co Mo. To this nine children were borned. Mr and Mrs Cunningham united with the Babtist Church in 1857. Both lived a Christian life to the end. Mrs. Cunningham was borned Apr 18, 1835 in Cooper Co Mo. They came to Kansas in 1879 settled in Grayham Co 1880 then from Graham to Marshall Co 1881. In 1885 returned to Phillips Co Kansas and lived the remainder of their lives in Phillips Co. He enlisted in civil war in Aug 1861 member of Company “F” Gentry Co Mo. Homeguard. He served our country for a period of three and half years bearing a Corporal for some time. She died at Kirwin 

Kansas he at Speed Kansas and both are buried in Glade Cemetary in Phillips Co Kansas."

According to the Bible record, nine children were born to Thomas and Margaret, but Census records show the couple raising only eight children. The second child, Lydia lived for one month and nine days until January 14, 1858. A search in government records reveals nothing of Lydia Cunningham. Her life was far too short to be acknowledged in a federal or state census. Without a midwife or hospital’s record, Lydia’s only imprint lies within a handwritten record in a family Bible.

Like his father before him, Thomas Cunningham, the first owner of the family Bible,  was a farmer. In 1840, his family relocated to Platte County, Missouri. It was here that he met Margaret and she agreed to be his wife. As tensions between states broke into the Civil War in 1861, Thomas enlisted in the Missouri Home Guard. The 

war claimed the lives of two of Thomas’s brothers. Thomas returned unscathed, but he and Margaret decided to relocate from Missouri to Kansas. Living an unsettled life, the census and land patents from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management report different residences in Kansas over a period of thirty years for Thomas and Margaret. The 1860 United States Federal Census asked its citizens of their ability to read and write. Unspecific in levels of literacy, the questions were answered in a simple yes or no fashion. The 1860 recorder noted Thomas could not read, and he could not write. During the following Census reports, Thomas was alternatingly reported as literate and illiterate. He likely had acquired a low reading proficiency in his few years of school, which the census recorder judged as literate or illiterate during each visit. In 1910, the U.S. Census records note Thomas as being literate. Twenty-four years after his purchase of the Cunningham Family Bible, it is possible Thomas taught himself how to better read and write with the aid of his expansive 

Bible, as he was now retired and spending less time in the fields. However, it is possible the Census representative chose to simply humor the eighty-year-old Civil War veteran during the visit and mark him as literate.

Throughout the census records, Thomas’s profession remains the same, “Farmer” or “Farmhand,” for many years. But in 1880, his work was recorded as a “Broommaker.” Although Thomas would still farm in order to grow and harvest the broomcorn to produce his brooms, the new entry suggests the start of a new entrepreneurship during these years. Not only would Thomas farm the land, he would process the broomcorn by soaking it for at least fifteen minutes in hot water. The broomcorn would then be tied, woven, and sewn to create a broom. A hearth broom, the most common size, requires forty-five heads of broomcorn.[1] Each broom is time consuming, and became a less common profession until the recent reemergence of “back to nature” lifestyles. This was Thomas’s last recorded profession.

With Thomas and Margaret’s passing, the family Bible was passed also. However, John General, their oldest son, was not the heir. A Family Temperance Pledge, included after the genealogical pages, signed by Ben and Jennie Cunningham suggests their ownership of the Bible. Perhaps John General received the family farm upon his father’s passing in 1912, and Benjamin collected the valuable trinkets before his sisters could claim them. This pattern continued as the oversized Bible was passed to Benjamin’s second son, Darrel Cunningham. After Darrel’s death in 1975, his wife Maybelle carefully considered her sons as heirs of the cherished heirloom. The Bible was now almost one hundred years old. Darrel Cunningham Jr., or J.R., more affectionately, held his eyes on the valuable. Yet in her later years, Maybelle gave the book to her second son, DeVane, avoiding a scene between the brothers after her death. She cited that he was the most reverent, or at least, was the only son that actually attended church.

DeVane marks the first man in his family to choose a profession other than farming. Creating and building, he proudly keeps a book of homes and projects (which his late wife, Doris, compiled) with each house he has built in Stockton, Kansas. A true carpenter, even his license plate reads “I BILD.” On his fireplace mantel stands a plaque from his years as the city commissioner. The precious Cunningham family Bible remained tucked away until it was uncovered in 2003 by his son, Dana Cunningham. DeVane agreed to have the item preserved by the Koerperich Bookbinders in Selden, Kansas. After receiving a very heavy package and a matching invoice in the mail many months later, Dana carefully removed the monstrous Bible from its cardboard box. He inspected its improved condition, and it was again tucked safely away. It remains there with the exception of Christmas Eve, when its yellowed 

pages are again opened and turned to the red ribbon marking the page “S. LUKE. –I.  75.” The verses are read aloud around an over decorated Christmas tree and a porcelain village set atop a Yamaha upright. Dana Cunningham sits on the creaky piano bench as the words printed almost 130 years ago echo through the house.

[1] Holzwart, Little John. “How to Make a Broom.” Mother Earth News. Ogden Publications, 29 Dec 2008. Web. 1 Dec 2014.

Gutjahr, Paul C. An American Bible : A History Of The Good Book In The United States, 1777-1880. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1999. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 19 Nov. 2014.

Holzwart, Little John. “How to Make a Broom.” Mother Earth News. Ogden Publications, 29 Dec 2008. Web. 1 Dec 2014.

“The Inflation Calculator.” Westegg. Morgan Friedman, n.d. Web. 19 Nov 2014.

“The Message.” Bible Research. 2012. Michael D. Marlowe, 2001. Web. 19 Nov 2014.