My Genealogy Hound

Isaac S. Ferguson, the subject of this sketch, was born in Shelby County, Ky., October 25, 1818, and moved to Missouri with his parents, Joshua C. Ferguson and Lucinda Ferguson, in 1821, settling in Callaway County, They remained there, however, only one year, then moving to Ralls County, and locating near Hannibal. Here Isaac lived until 1837, when he left home and went to Mission Institute, near Quincy, Ill., where he attended school until the spring of 1843. The 2d day of February, 1843, he married Miss Maria Wolf, a native of Pennsylvania. On the 1st day of May, of this year, he left Quincy, and came with his wife to his father’s, who had, in 1839, moved from Ralls County, and settled near Boonville, in Cooper County, Mo. He and his father built a log school-house on his father’s place, and he taught a small school this summer. In the winter of 1843-44 he taught a six months’ term in the eastern part of the county. In 1844 the memorable overflow of the Missouri River occurred. In July of this year Mr. Ferguson entered forty acres of land in Morgan County, and settled upon it, where he and his young wife struggled for ten years to build up a home. There were born to them four children, two daughters and two sons: Angeline, Lucinda, Cyrus and John, who grew up to womanhood and manhood. Angeline is deceased; Lucinda married James M. Purcell, and lives in Woodson County, Kas.; Cyrus is farming in Morgan County, Mo., and John has a farm in Benton County. On December 22, 1852, Mrs. Ferguson died, leaving her bereaved husband with four orphan children. He left his little home, and his children were scattered for nearly a year. On October 25, 1853, Mr. Ferguson married Miss Emily Wine, in Paris, Monroe County, Mo. Miss Wine was a native of Virginia. He at once got his children together on his little farm, and with his second wife commenced again the struggle of making a comfortable home. To this union were born four children: William, Edward C., Isaac S., Jr. (who are all married and engaged in the lumber business in Tipton), and Augusta (deceased wife of Frank Bane). Mr. Ferguson, in politics, was an old-line Whig, and cast his first vote in Quincy, Ill., in 1840, for William Henry Harrison. In 1860 he gave his vote for Bell and Everett; in 1864 for Abraham Lincoln, and has voted the Republican ticket ever since. When the war for secession came, though born and reared in the South, he was a strong Union man, and as early as June 30, 1861, helped raise a company of Union Home Guards, and was in Col. A. P. Richardson’s regiment until mustered out by order of Col. J. C. Fremont, 1st day of October, 1861. His sons and sons-in-law are all Republicans, and members of the church. He was one of the prime movers in organizing the Methodist Episcopal Church in Tipton near the close of the war. His father died in Cole Camp, Benton County, January 7, 1864, aged seventy-one years, and his mother nine years after, at the age of seventy-nine years. Mr. Ferguson has prospered on his farm, has 500 or 600 acres of land; is an acting notary public, and has been for more than twenty-five years, and is also one of the directors of the Bank of Tipton. Though nearly seventy-one years old, he is quite a vigorous old gentleman.