In W. David Baird and Danney Goble’s book “ Oklahoma:A History, they write “when Elva Shartel Ferguson died in 1947, she left behind a remarkable record, faithfully recorded in her own memoirs of her life and times, They Carried the Torch: The Story of Oklahoma's Pioneer Newspapers.
She also left behind a story so fascinating that the best-selling writer Edna Ferber based a novel- Cimarron- on it. Hollywood turned the novel into a successful motion picture - twice.”
Mrs. Ferguson is so famous that her picture is featured on a map produced by the Oklahoma Heritage Association. She shares the front/back covers with Will Rogers. She is obviously in the same league with C.R. Anthony (remember Anthony’s Department stores ?); Mabel Bourne Basset, the Commissioner of Charities and Corrections; Dr. Henry Garland Benett, President of Oklahoma State University; Walter Stanley Campbell, Oklahoma’s first Rhodes Scholar and author of many books about the West; Angie Debo, author of many books about the Choctaw, Tulsa, and Geronimo; Thomas Elmer Braniff, Founder of Braniff Airlines (I still have a deck of cards from one of their flights), Edward K. Gaylord, founder of the Daily Oklahoman and the Oklahoma Publishing Company that owned four newspapers and seven television stations, etc.; Sylvan Nathan Golman who developed the Humpty Dumpty Grocery Chain and Allied Supermarkets and the shopping cart; Frank Buttram, the founder of Fortuna Oil Company and whose mansion houses the Oklahoma Museum of Art; Charles N. Gould, a geologist whose mappings showed the great potential for oil production in Oklahoma and many others.
The map contains biographies and pictures of more than 40 famous Oklahomans who were Elva Ferguson’s contemporaries. And of course, she was a neighbor of Clarence Nash of Watonga, born in 1904.
When I visit the newly painted Ferguson mansion, I feel so honored and humbled to be part of promoting the legacy of T.B. and Elva Ferguson and their family.
The Friends of the Ferguson Home cordially invite you, your family, business, club, youth group or other to visit. Docents are present Thursday and Friday afternoons and Saturday 10-4 and Sunday 1-4 p.m.