Emma Cunningham lived in Adams Co., Ohio at least until 1850, when she was enumerated in her father's household on August 26th. Sometime in the 1850s, she moved to Cass Co., Indiana with others of the family. She was living with her sister, Martha Ann & her brother-in-law, James Rogers in Harrison Twp.,Cass Co. in 1860.

On Sept. 2, 1861, Emma left Cass Co., Indiana and traveled to the Hazelwood Mission on the Upper Indian Government Agency, near the present day Granite Falls, Minnesota. Her brother Doak Cunningham was a steward and teacher for the Hazelwood boarding school for Dakota Indian children there. At the boarding school, Emma did most of the cooking, helped with ironing, sewing, and cleaning. She also entertained and baby sat the Indian children when school wasn't in session.

On August 18, 1862, as they were eating supper at the Hazelwood Mission, word came that Indians had killed some white people at the Lower Agency, 35 miles below. About bedtime, their friendly Indians urged them to flee immediately and guided them to an island in the Minnesota River, about 3 miles from the Mission, where they hid until the next afternoon. At night they formed a junction on the north side of the Minnesota and started out on the prairie by wagon and by foot. A thunderstorm had wiped out their tracks so the Indians could not follow them. On the 25th of August, after seven days of terror, exhaustion, hunger, and discomfort from the rain, Emma, her brother Doak, his wife Mary, and some of the others reached St. Peter, Minn., about 100 miles from their homes at the Hazelwood Mission. They then traveled on several days to Minneapolis where they rested and went shopping.

On Sept. 4, 1862, almost a year to the day she left Indiana, Emma took a boat on the Mississippi from St. Paul to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, where she boarded the train to Chicago. She reached Chicago on Sept. 7th and took the train for Logansport, Ind. the next morning, reaching Logansport about noon. Emma then went home to live again at the farm of Martha & James Rogers, where she helped with the household chores and caring for their children.

The Civil War was raging at this time and Emma was involved in sewing for the soldiers and attending meetings of the Soldiers Aid Society.

She got a certificate to teach and from May to August 1863, was employed to teach the children in a local country school.

Emma may have kept up a correspondence with John B. Shultz, although no mention is made of him in her diary. John was off in the Army, helping fight the Civil War and she no doubt heard news of him from her friends and sisters who still lived in Adams Co., Ohio. Perhaps after the war Emma went to Ohio for a visit and renewed her acquaintance with John. In any case, the relationship blossomed and they were married in Lee Co., Iowa on Aug. 28, 1867 by Rev. R. Burgess.