Warren Fergus
In 1832, one year after Grant county Government was organized, the Fergus family was transplanted from Ohio to the unbroken wilderness and hills and valleys of Jefferson Township. Many lives have entered into the development of Grant County, and of those of pioneer stock none have done more credit to their lengthy residence than those of the Fergus kith and kin. Warren Fergus, whose ample and fruitful acres and establishment makes him one of the most prosperous of Grant county's farmers, was born here before the county had finished the first decade of its existence, and is the grandson of a patriot who bore arms for the colonies in the war of the Revolution.
His ancestry is Scotch-Irish, and his grandfather, Francis Fergus, was born September 8, 1752, in the north of Ireland, and of that people of Protestant lineage, who several generations before, had been transplanted from Scotland to the northern counties of Ireland. Francis Fergus with two brothers came to America some time previous to the Revolutionary war, and he and one of his brothers took up arms and fought in behalf of the colonies, during that struggle. The other brother, however, was a Tory, and in his loyalty to the mother country returned during the course of the war to England, and remained there until the final triumph of the American cause, when he returned to this side of the Atlantic and spent the rest of his years in the independent colony. Francis Fergus and his brothers lived in Virginia, the former was a farmer, and after the death of his wife, whose maiden name was McCormick, of the same family which produced the makers of harvesting machinery, he went to live with a daughter in Tennessee, where he died suddenly, September 28, 1841, when eighty-nine years of age. He and his family were Presbyterians in religious faith.
Sawyer B. Fergus, a son of Francis and father of Warren, was one of the younger in a family of children, and was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, march 18, 1802. When a young man he joined his brother James in Miami County, Ohio, and later had an experience in running a flat-boat down the Mississippi River carrying a great variety of produce from the upper Ohio Valley to New Orleans. In the meantime in Miami County, in October, 1829, occurred his marriage with Julia McFadden, who was born of Pennsylvania parents and of Scotch-Irish stock. Her birth occurred in Miami County, Ohio, December 31, 1809. In 1832 Sawyer B. Fergus and his family of two children came to Indiana, locating in the wilds of Jefferson Township in Grant County. As one of the very first settlers in his community he had to cut a roadway two miles through the timber, in order to reach his land. His title to the land was received by patent direct from the government, and there had never been an improvement made on the place, until he erected his log cabin. Some years later that rude shelter was replaced by a good frame house, and there he lived prospering quietly, and steadily improving and increasing his possessions until, with one hundred and fifty-one acres in his estate and after providing liberally for his family and performing his varied obligations to the community, he died honored and esteemed, June 24, 1864. First a Whig and later a Republican in politics, he became a member of the Methodist Church, and was always ready to do his part in community affairs. His wife, Julia (McFadden) Fergus died at the old home in Jefferson Township in 1882 at the age of seventy-three. She likewise was a working member of the Shiloh Methodist Church, and she and her husband rest side by side in the old cemetery at that place. Her children were named as follows: Samuel, Mary, Clinton, Edwin, Warren, Harriet and Juliet, twins; Rachael, Sarah J., Margaret, Sawyer A., and James. All these grew to manhood and womanhood and most of them were married. Four sons and three daughters still live, and of these Sarah J. and Margaret are unmarried. The oldest of the living children is eighty years and the youngest sixty-one.
Warren Fergus was born on the old farm near his present home in Jefferson Township, September 21, 1837. His early life was spent in the primitive surroundings of that time and his educational advantages were more practical than theoretical. When eighteen years of age he started for California, but on account of the "Border Ruffian" war of 1856, he only went as far as Kansas. He traveled all over Kansas, then practically unsettled except by Indians. In 1860 he was married and in the following year he and his young wife went out to Iowa, locating in Paige County. There on August 9, 1862, he responded to the call for volunteers in defense of the Union, enlisting in Company F of the Twenty-Third Iowa Infantry. As a private he served until his honorable discharge, which was delivered to him on August 11, 1865. He made a splendid record as a soldier, was always on duty, never in the hospital, was never wounded or captured, and the record of the Iowa regiment to which he belonged is practically the record of his individual service. He was in many of the great campaigns of the war, including the long series of operations about Vicksburg, Fort Gibson, Raymond, Champion Hill, Black River Bridge, where the regiment lost its colonel, through the forty-nine days of the actual siege of Vicksburg, later went down to New Orleans, and into Texas, participated in the Red River Campaign, where he saw some of his hardest fighting was at the siege of Mobile, and so continued until the close of the great conflict.
In the fall of 1866, Mr. Fergus returned to Grant County, where he was born, and bought eighty acres of land. There he began farming and carpenter work, a trade which he had learned in young manhood, and has since enjoyed a degree of success which ranks him among the most progressive men of Grant County. His estate now comprises one hundred and eighty acres in Jefferson Township, besides sixty acres in Washington Township, Delaware County, Indiana. The property is all well improved and well kept, and about thirty years ago Mr. Fergus built a fine barn on a foundation fifty by fifty-six feet, and also a comfortable nine-room white brick dwelling house.
The wife whom he married in 1860 in Jefferson Township was Miss Nancy Jane Horner, who was born in Ohio, September 9, 1837, and when fifteen years of age was brought to Jefferson Township by her parents, Andrew and Nancy (Walker) Horner. Her father was born in Pennsylvania, and her mother in Rockbridge, Virginia, and after their marriage in the latter State, moved to Miami County, Ohio, where they improved a homestead, alter going to Darke County, Ohio, and afterwards to Jefferson Township in Grant County, Indiana. Mr. Horner was an industrious citizen and hard worker and after a worthy lifetime died in Jefferson Township in 1873 at the age of sixty-seven. His wife died later at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Fergus, April 1, 1895, aged eighty-seven years. They were Presbyterians, and Mr. Horner was a Republican in politics. Mrs. Fergus has one brother living, Calvin Horner, who is a farmer at Upland.
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Fergus are as follows:
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Ida M., is the wife of Eugene Heal, living in Delaware County, Indiana, and their children are Caroline and Alma.
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Oscar W. lives on a ranch near Santa Ana, California, and his children are Nevada, Floyd, Fern and Grant.
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Emery W. , is married to Maude Lang and has a son, Ernest R. and their home is in Santa Barbara, California.
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Elnora E. (twin of Emery W.) married J. William Richards, a farmer in Jefferson Township, and they have one son, Ord, who died aged two and a half years.
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Lois A. is the wife of D. L. Richards, a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this publication.
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Orvil L. is a farmer in Delaware County, Indiana, and by his marriage to Della Owen has two children, Eva and Forrest.
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Edwin C. lives near Santa Ana, California, on a ranch, and married Pearl Powers.
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Clyde H. operates the home farm and married Olive Vida Watson of the State of California, and their one child is Warren R.
Mrs. Fergus is a member of the Presbyterian church and Mr. Fergus attends that church. In politics he is aligned with the new Progressive party.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.