Ferguson Features

As governor, TB Ferguson did much to protect and promote farmers and ranchers in Oklahoma. As governor of the territory of Oklahoma November 1901-Jan. 1906, TB Ferguson instituted several measures to promote and protect Oklahoma agriculture, including the development of a Board of Agriculture and agricultural inspection services. In December 1902, with glanders – an infectious disease -- being imported in jacks from Missouri, a quarantine was placed on all equines brought into the state. Glanders is caused by a bacterium, Pseudomonas (now Burkholderia) pseudomallei which is on the U.S. government’s select agents lists.

In 1903, the Board of Agriculture detected mange in cattle in NW Oklahoma around Woodward. Mange is caused by Sarcoptei scabei/var bovis, an organism related to scabies in humans. Based on the recommendation of the Board of Agriculture, in April 2003, Ferguson signed a proclamation restricting all movement of cattle in the affected area of NW Oklahoma for a period of months until the outbreak could be stopped.

Later that year, to prevent the importation of tick fever cattle which is transmitted by a hard tick Ripecephalis (Boophilus) annulatus, endemic in Mexico and border areas in Texas, all importation of cattle from infected areas of Texas was ceased by proclamation of the governor in October 1903, based on Board of Agriculture recommendations. Texas tick fever is caused by a protozoa organism Babesia that resembles malaria under the microscope. The northeast and north central areas of the United States have Babesiosis in small animals and man. In cattle, it causes a wasting disease and death.

As a final example, with the Mexican boll weevil devasting crops in the south including Texas and Louisiana, all products potentially infected with boll weevils were restricted. Cotton plant products passing through Oklahoma had to be in sealed containers. In the proclamation each county of Texas infected with the weevil was listed as were infected parishes of Louisiana. This April 1905 proclamation drafted by the Board of Agriculture and signed by the governor was specifically designed to protect agriculture in the Territory https://digitalprairie. ok.gov/digital/collection/ territorial/id/3044 /rec/52 Visit the TB Ferguson Home Museum to learn more about this remarkable first family of Oklahoma.