Ferguson Features

Elva Shartel Ferguson, wife of Thompson Benton (T.B.) Ferguson, was named Oklahoma Mother of the year in 1946 in her 75th year. While Mrs. Ferguson had many roles including wife at approximately 16 years of age, first land run of 1889 at 20 years, and co-establisher of the Watonga Republican in 1892 at 23 years of age. She was about 32 when she became first lady of Oklahoma Territory when her husband was named governor. But as the award of Mother of the Year suggests, one of her greatest achievements was as a mother.

The Fergusons had three daughters, but none lived past infancy. A brief newspaper article in the Sedan, Kan.

Republican notes the death of 19-month-old Norna on May 8, 1891, only five days after the birth of son ‘Trad’ who is discussed later in this feature.

The same article notes that the couple had lost another daughter prior to the death of little Norna. No record has been located of that child, her name or date of birth and death, although a photograph in the museum shows Walter with a baby girl.

The third girl, Elfa, was born in Blaine County on Sept. 22, 1896. We can only guess as to her date of death, narrowed down again by a newspaper article. This article, in 1906, notes the passing of a cat who the family had between 1893 and 1906. The cat was a “pet of another little one during a brief lifetime, patted and caressed by baby hands that have been cold in death many years,” which gives us a window of 10 years in which Elfa lived her short life.

There is a page from the burial rolls of the First Highland Cemetery, east of the prison, which notes the daughter of T.B. Ferguson being buried in block 23. But since the page is a photocopy of a partial page, there is no date attached to the burial and there is no stone visible at the cemetery, nor any way to pinpoint block 23.

Their oldest son, Walter Ferguson was born in Sedan, Kansas in 1886. He went to Oklahoma Territory with his parents on multiple land runs, settling in Watonga, Oklahoma in October 1892. When his father became Governor of Oklahoma Territory, Ferguson was sent to Wentworth Military Academy where he graduated in 1906. That year he went on to the University of Oklahoma and became a founding member and first president of Kappa Alpha, the school's first fraternity.

In 1908, he left school and married Lucia Loomis and the couple bought the Cherokee Republican. He served in the 6th Oklahoma Legislature between 1917 and 1919. In 1920 he sold the Cherokee Republican and moved to Oklahoma City and worked in advertising at a bank. In 1927 he was hired as the vice-president of the Exchange National Bank of Tulsa. He had three children: Benton, Ruth, and Tom. He died in 1936. (Walter Ferguson Wikipedia.)

Trad “Tom” Ferguson was born May 3, 1891, in Sedan, Kan. As an adult, he worked for the Wichita Eagle and McAlester News-Capital.

Other sources recount him as a reporter for the Daily Oklahoman and the Oklahoma City Times. He contributed to the 25th anniversary edition of the Watonga Republican from Ft. Sill (Richard King Thesis, 1949). According to a newspaper account, Lieutenant Ferguson entered the second officers training camp, was commissioned and detailed to the aviation branch of the service. He won his wings at the Post Field camp. He was stricken with influenza early, convalesced and was attacked with pneumonia and died January 1919.

Tom Ferguson, 27, Watonga, Okla., married Miss Bertha Holcomb, 22, Anadarko at Anadarko, July 10,1918 by Rev.L.L. Brannon.

Tom Jr. Thompson Trad is buried at the IOOF cemetery in Watonga with his parents.

It is no wonder that Mrs. Ferguson was named Oklahoma Mother of the year.