Andrew J. Ferguson
A life of signal integrity, industry and worthiness has been that of Mr. Ferguson, who ahs been a resident of Grant County from his boyhood days and who has now passed the psalmist's span of three score years and ten, so that he is one of the venerable citizens of the country, even as he is one of its most honored representatives of the pioneer element in this favored section of the State. He has been in the most significant sense the architect of his own fortunes and is largely self-educated, as he received most limited scholastic advantages in his youth. He is known a s man of mature judgment, fine mentality and exalted character, and thus it may be well understood that in the community which has long been his home he has a host of friends. His active career was one of close and indefatigable application to the great basic industry of agriculture, in connection with which he achieved substantial independence and prosperity, and he is still the owner of one of the valuable farm properties of Grant County, this homestead being situated in Monroe and Center Townships, the farm aggregating 204 acres. He is now retired from the active labors and responsibilities which were his for many years and in his attractive home he and his devoted wife are passing the gracious twilight of their lives, compassed by peace and prosperity and the most pleasing of associations. Mr. Ferguson is a righteous, generous and high-minded man, is an ordained minister of the Christian Church and has been one of the zealous and faithful workers in the vineyard of the Divine Master, with kindly tolerance and with an earnest desire to do all in his power to aid and uplift his fellow men. His standing in the community and his definite achievement in connection with the practical activities of life, render most consistent the specific recognition accorded to him in this history of the county, in which his friends are equal in number to his acquaintances. He left the farm January 21, 1900, and bought and moved into his present residence, 705 West Second Street, Marion.
Though by training and appreciative loyalty Mr. Ferguson is essentially and emphatically a Hoosier, he claims the old buckeye State as the place of his nativity. He was born in Clinton County, Ohio, on the 25th of October, 1842, and is a son of Drury and Charlotte (Oliver) Ferguson, the former a native of Virginia and of stanch Scottish lineage, and the latter a native of North Carolina. Drury Ferguson devoted his entire active career to agricultural pursuits and applied himself zealously, though he was unable to gain more than nominal financial success, owing principally to the fact that upon him rested the responsibility of caring for and rearing a large family of children. About the year 1848 he came with his family to Indiana and he became one of the pioneer farmers of Grant County. He first established his home on Walnut Creek, and later removed to land owned by Martin Griffin. He always farmed on rented land thus was unable to leave any material estate to his children, in providing for whom he had expended his best efforts. He passed the closing period of his life in Monroe Township, this county, where he died in 1878, at the age of seventy-six years, his loved and noble wife, having been summoned to eternal rest in 1868. Both were earnest, righteous and God-fearing persons and their memories are revered by those of their children who are still living, the while their names merit place on the roll of the honored pioneers of this section of the Hoosier State. They became the parents of twelve children, all save one of whom attained to maturity and of whom seven are now living -
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Josiah, of North Marion, this county.
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Mrs. Susan Bole, of Van Buren Township, this county.
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Mrs. Lucy Ann Davis, of Van Buren Township.
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Zachariah, of Monroe Township.
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Edmund, of Carroll County, Missouri.
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Mrs. Charlotte Palmer, of Blackford County, Indiana.
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Andrew Jackson, the immediate subject of this review and the sixth in order of birth of the twelve children.
Reared under the conditions and influences of the pioneer days, Andrew J. Ferguson received but meager educational advantages in his boyhood and youth, but he has effectually overcome this handicap through self-discipline and through the valuable lessons gained under the direction of that wisest of all head-masters, experience. He was a lad of six years at the time of the family removal to Indiana and thus he has been a resident of Grant county for more than sixty years, during which he has contributed his full quota to industrial and social development and progress and given himself earnestly and effectively to the labors of the farm. In this vocation he is familiar with the vicissitudes that attended the reclamation and improving of wild land in the pioneer epoch and has stood exponent of the advanced methods and facilities which have attended agricultural pursuits in these latter days of opulent prosperity. He early began to do hard work and to assist in the support of the large family -a discipline which he has never regretted, since it gave to him self-reliance, ambition and a respect for the dignity and value of honest toil. He continued to assist his father until he was nearly twenty-one years of age, when he secured employment on a neighboring farm. He was employed as a farm hand for eight years and in the meanwhile carefully saved the meager earnings received from his arduous work. His really independent career was initiated when he began putting in crops "on shares", as it is designated, and here his energy and close application enabled him to make a profit within the four years of his operations along this line. At the age of twenty-three years Mr. Ferguson married, and with the added responsibilities he consulted ways and means for the securing of independence. He purchased on credit a tract of forty acres of land, and of this he later disposed at a profit, after which he went to live on the land of Shadrick Tornburg, where he worked land on shares for that man, who had a distinct liking for him and who manifested this be devising to him by will the sum of one thousand dollars. this generous and timely bequest enabled Mr. Ferguson to gain a substantial footing on the ladder of success, and thence onward he put forth his best energies and ability in working toward the mark of substantial success and prosperity, thus justifying the confidence that had been shown by his benefactor. He purchased one hundred and fifteen acres of land, partially improved, and in 1869 he took up his residence on his farm, situated in Monroe Township. With the passing of years he broadened the scope of his operations, besides making excellent improvements of a permanent order on his homestead. He made judicious investments in adjoining land and eventually accumulated a fine estate of two hundred and seventy acres, of which he retains in his possession two hundred and four acres, the remaining portion having been deeded to his two sons when they attained legal majority and were thus deserving of this tangible aid in starting their independent careers. Mr. Ferguson still finds much satisfaction in giving a general supervision to his farm and directing its affairs, as his long experience, mature judgment and thorough familiarity with all details of agricultural and stock-growing industry make his counsel authoritative and most valuable.
In politics though never animated with aught of desire for official preferment, Mr. Ferguson accords a stanch allegiance to the Democratic party, and he has been most liberal in the support of measures and enterprises advanced for the general good of the community. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd fFllows and both he and his wife are most zealous members of the Christian Church, as was also his first wife. He has aided in the founding of many churches of this denomination in Grant county and for many years he continued his active ministrations and labors as an ordained clergyman of his church, having officiated at many weddings and funerals and in supplying various pulpits in the county. He is one of the veritable pillars of the Lugar Creek Christian Church, known to many as the McKinney Church, of which he is a Deacon, besides serving as church clerk. The Ferguson family has many representatives in Indiana and they have formed a permanent organization, known as the Ferguson family Reunion Association. Periodical reunions are held and prove a source of much pleasure and gratification, the president of the association at the present time being he whose name initiates this review and who has been most prominent in making the gatherings of the family successful and profitable.
On the 1st of March, 1866, Mr. Ferguson wedded Miss Catherine Nebbitt, who was born at St. Mary's, Auglaize County, Ohio, of Holland Dutch ancestry and who passed to the life eternal about a decade after her marriage, her death having occurred in 1877. The three children of his union are:
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Absalom, who is the owner of a good farm in Grant County.
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Frank, who is likewise owner of valuable farm lands in this county, besides which he conducts a mercantile business, on Railroad Avenue, Marion.
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John, who resides in Peru, Miami County, Indiana, where he follows general teaming and incidental lines of enterprise.
All of the sons are married and have children. In December, 1878, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ferguson to Miss Lusanie E. Hayes, who has been his devoted companion and helpmate during the long intervening years and who has been a resident of Grant County from the time of her birth, her parents, Jackson and Mary Ann (Rock) Hayes having been early settlers of the county, where they continue to reside. Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson have two daughters, both of whom were born on the old homestead farm and both of whom were afforded good educational advantages. Mary is now the wife of Charles Nelson of Marion, the capital city of her native county, and here also resides Martha, who is the wife of Doyle A. Pilcher.
The career of Mr. Ferguson illustrates emphatically the value of consecutive application along normal lines of enterprise, and the story of his life offers both lesson and incentive, for he has not only achieved definite and worthy success, but has also proved himself mindful of the duties and responsibilities which such success involves, and has been earnest and self-abnegating in the aiding and uplifting of those who have come within the sphere of his kindly and sincere influence.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914