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SQUIRE JOHN FERGUSON-IBERIA'S GRAND OLD GENTLEMAN |
Squire John Ferguson was one of most colorful figures in Iberia's past history. He lived to the advanced age of 101 years and was a noted and respected citizen of the Iberia community. |
John Ferguson was born on Christmas Day in 1838 in the small village of Dumfries, Scotland. As a small boy, age eight, he started working as an apprentice to a local village shoemaker. He did not enjoy this type of work at all, so he quit and became an apprentice painter. He worked as a painter's apprentice for the next few years until he reached the age of 14 years learning this skillful trade. When he was six years old he began his schooling. These Scottish children were taught from the Bible and hardly anything else. At that time in history, the churches and the school of Scotland were under the control of the government. |
When John was 14 years old , his father decided to bring his family to America. They left Dumfries in 1852, going overland to Liverpool, England, and departing Liverpool in September 1852. William Ferguson & his wife, Isabella Hunter Ferguson, their son John, and daughters Martha & Elizabeth began their long sea journey across the Atlantic. Unfortunately John's father did not live to see the shores of his new homeland in America. He died on board ship and was buried with the usual procedure at sea. He was sewn in a canvas bag with a large piece of lead at his feet, lowered over the side of the ship and after a brief funeral service, was lowered into his watery grave. Two other immigrants also died on the same ocean voyage before the ship harboured in New Orleans in October of 1852. The name of the ship in which the family made their jouney across the Atlantic was "Colonel Cutts." |
Isabella Hunter Ferguson and her three children did not stay in New Orleans very long. They boarded a boat called "The Sovereign of Pittsburg" and went up the Mississippi River, arriving in St. Louis the latter part of October 1852. Isabella had a sister and brother-in-law, the William Dunlaps, living in St. Louis so they went to the home of the Dunlaps and lived with them for awhile. William Dunlap was Mississippi River boatman and he hired John to work for him on the river. He worked there for about nine years, until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. |
John Ferguson experienced some exciting times on the Mississippi and was a great story teller. Several incidents happened in his young life that would make a great plot for an adventure story. During the war he was a witness to most of the Camp Jackson skirmish which took place near St. Louis. He said One time in an interview that "If had not been for the loyal German regiments, I believe St. Louis would have been captured by General Jackson and his Confederate forces. |
John Ferguson drifted into Miller County in September 1861, but first stopped in Maries County where he had relatives living. I believe they were some of his mother's Hunter kinfolks. He moved westward to Miller County and began working on a farm about six miles west of Iberia. In June 1862, John married Dorcas Canzada Shelton, daughter of Thomas & Elizabeth Shelton, who had come to the Big Richwoods from McMinn County, Tennessee. John & Dorcas were married by Rev. Abraham Castleman, who was captain of a Confederate troop during the war. In order to get Rev. Castleman to come and marry them, John had to ride 15 or 20 miles to get him and then accompany him back home because Rev. Castleman was afraid of the "bushwackers" roaming the area who might be seeking him out. |
John's mother, Isabella Hunter Ferguson, came to to Miller county to live prior to 1880. She was living near the Madden community in southern Miller County during the census taken in 1880 and was listed as a "seamstress". A descendant of this family believes Isabella is buried at Madden Cemetery, although no tombstone marks her grave. |
During the war, John joined Colonel McClurg's Osage Regiment at Linn Creek, Camden County, and later he enlisted in regular service in Company M 3rd Missouri Cavalry Volunteers where he served with the Union Army until the close of the war. It is interesting to note that his wife's relatives were from the South and her uncle, William Rankin Wright, was a lieutenant in the Confederate Army in Miller County. This was typical of many families that were torn apart during this terrible time in American history. |
Squire John and Dorcas(Shelton) Ferguson were parents of 14 children, two of them dying in infancy. Those who survived to adulthood were: William, Charles, Fred, George, Edward, Jack, Harry, Frank, Laura, Belle, Elizabeth and Martha. |
Ater his discharge in New Orleans in 1864, Squire John and his family made Miller County their permanent home. Over the next 74 years, John was a prominent man in the Iberia area. For many years he was post commander of Miles Carroll Post 111 of the Grand Army of the Republic in Iberia and was instrumental in keeping the Post in active service. He very seldom missed one of the encampments, both state & national, and over the years he filled most all stations in the highly honored organization...On May 16, 1928 he was elected Department Commander of the G.A.R. for the state of Missouri at it's 47th annual encampment held in Springfield. |
John was active in the religious, political and public affairs of Miller County and was justice of the peace at Iberia for more than 50 years. |
In 1939, Iberia lost one of her most remarkable and unforgettable citizens...Captain John Ferguson, also called "Squire". He had reached his 101st year. There are many folks today who remember him so vividly and are still reminiscence of those long-ago days when he could be seen on the streets of Iberia with his snowwhite hair and long, white beard, much like a patriarch of old. There are many descendants of Squire John Ferguson who still live in central Missouri in the counties of Miller, Pulaski and Camden as well as those who have moved all over America. |
FRED P. HAUS (John's brother-inlaw) |
Fred P. Haus was born June 3, 1842, in Mobile Alabama. At an early age, he moved with his parents to St. Louis and lived there for many yeas. He graduated from the public schools in that city. I do not know anything about his early years nor his ancestry, except his father was of German descent, born in Germany, while his mother was a native of South Carolina (per the 1900 census) |
Fred P. Haus married Elizabeth/Lizzie Ferguson in St. Louis in 1865. Elizabeth, born in Dumphries, Scotland in April 1843, was a daughter of William Ferguson and Isabelle (Hunter). When she was about ten years old, the family came to America. Her father died at sea and was buried in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. Elizabeth's mother and her three children landed in New Orleans in October 1852 and eventually sailed up the Mississippi River to St. Louis where they had kinfolks living. |
After the Civil War, Elizabeth remained in St. Louis while her mother and brother (John Ferguson) ventured into central Missouri to Maries County, where Isabelle's family, the Hunters, were living. John Ferguson came on westward to Miller County and settled near Iberia. He married Dorcas Canzada Shelton of the old Madden community and they reared their family in that area. Squire John Ferguson, Elizabeth's brother was a well-known resident of the Big Richwoods. |
Fred P. Haus was employed by the Charter Oak and Stove Co. of St. Louis for many years as a traveling salesman. He also was an active member of the Gideon organization for more than 21 years and one year served as Missouri State Chaplain of the Gideons. |
Fred and Elizabeth/Lizzie were parents of eight children: |
Charles D. Haus (1878-1964) married Flora Keeth |
William Haus. |
Fred P. Haus Jr. |
Richard M. Haus |
Mary McCook Haus (1882-1957) |
Margaret J. Haus born 1875 married James H. Long |
Isabelle Haus married ??? Goodrich |
Harry M. Haus born Sept. 1882 married Ellen Wall. |
I am not certain when the Haus family moved to Miller County. In the 1900 census, Fred & Lizzie were living near Iberia. In their home were three of there children: Margaret, Charles and Harry. According to census records, five of their eight children were still living in 1900. |
Fred P. Haus died in 1920 and was returned to St. Louis for burial in Bellefontaine Cemetery in the Haus family plot. His wife, Elizabeth/Lizzie (Ferguson) lived until April, 1928 and at her death, was also taken to Bellefontaine for burial beside her husband. Some ot their children remained in the Iberia area and reared their families. Their sons, Charles and Harry are both buried at Iberia Cemetery. |
JAMES E. WALKER, an overseer of Miller County's "POOR FARM" |
James E. Walker was born in Wayne Courty. KY on April 10, 1849, a son of George W. Walker and Mary/Polly Coughron. He was one of three chidren born to his parents. His father was a painter by occupation and sometime during James' childhood, his father was among the thousands who went to California in the western movement. He was never heard from again. It is not known if he died somewhere along the way or in California. James' mother also died when the children were young, so they were left orphans and were reared among strangers back in Kentucky. |
James was reared to farm labor which became his chief occupation in his lifetime. About 1869, at the age of 20 years, he left Kentucky and moved to Warren County, Illinois where he stayed for 3 years. In 1872, he came on to Miller County and located near Pleasant Mount (today called Mt. Pleasant). |
On September 23,1874, James married Mary Ellen Lawson in Miller County, the marrage performed by E. P. Belshe, minister. Mary Ellen, born c/1854, was a daughter of Lewis and Nancy Matthews, natives of Tennessee. The Lawsons were eanly settlers of. Equality township and reared several children in the Tuscumba area. |
In 1886, James E. Walker was appointed as overseer of the county's "poor farm" located south of the Osage river and downriver trom Tuscumbia. He served for a few years as overseer of indigent persons who became 'inmates" of the poor farm (sometimes called "the poor house". |
Evidently James and Mary Ellen Walker left Miller County before l900 because no record of them was found in the census taken that year. There is no record for a marriage of any of their children in Miller County records either, so I would suspect they left the county sometime between 1890-1900. |
"ABOUT THE MILLER COUNTY POOR FARM" |
Aged and indigent people, considered paupers, were taken care of in the late 1800s and early 1900s in a county 'poor farm'. Private individuals were hired by the county court to run the poor and to take care of those who could not take care of themselves. |
In 1884, a farm of 214 acres was bought by the county court whch was located about a mile downriver from Tuscunbia on the south bank of a bluff overlooking he Osage river. Wesley A Hackney was appointed by the county court to serve as the 'poor farm's' first superintendent, followed by James E. Walker in 1880. |
In 1930, the county court levied a 10c tax per $100 valuation for a period of one year to secure money to buy property to erect a county home The same year the court bought l98 acres about 21/2 miles southeast of Tuscumbia on Highway 17 and built a two-story brick building at the cost of $23,000.It was 92 ft. by32 ft.and later had other additions. This county farm was used for several decades until a new, more spacious home was constructed nearby. The old two-story building has been demolished and the replacement is now the Miller County Nursing Home which is funded through a tax levy and is one of the county's political subdivisions. |
Gordon C. Skaggs |
Gordon Churchwell Skaggs was born in Knox County, Tennessee, on Aug.. |