This week brought plenty of cold, snow and wind to western Oklahoma. But can you imagine arriving in Oklahoma in 1892 as the Fergusons did when the temperature dropped to 11 degrees in OKC? And this was before wind chill factors were calculated. How would one stay warm in an airy, hastily built building in Watonga? Probably those who lived in dugouts were less cold. And I am sure the animals suffered in the cold/wind too. As I write on January 26, the cattle comfort index is in the danger range at -4o, and that with little wind. Cattle and horses were, according to Mrs. Ferguson, the most valuable things most settlers owned.
In February, the Friends of the Ferguson Home is celebrating African American Heritage month. From 13 p.m. on Tuesday, February 3, at the Ferguson Home the Plains Collective and the Friends of the Ferguson Home will host C.J. Johnson and Linda Colbert speaking on African-American contributions in Watonga.
At 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 19 at the Watonga Public Library ,the Friends of the Ferguson Home will host Professor Roger Hardaway of Northwestern Oklahoma State University. He will speak on the history of the ‘Buffalo Soldiers,’ the name some Native tribes used for Black soldiers.
The Fergusons were friends, colleagues and protectors of African Americans. Thompson B. Ferguson wrote a historical novel “ The Jayhawkers, a Tale of the Border War: Kansas in the Early Days.” He had a prominent African-American in his cabinet, Edwin P. McCabe, who founded Langston University, and the town of Salton in Blaine County renamed itself “Ferguson” in his honor”.
And the cavalry station which now sits on the Ferguson Home property may have been used by the 9th Cavalry, an African-American unit that patrolled from Ft. Sill and Ft. Reno to Ft. Supply. The Friends of the Ferguson Home are pleased to honor African Americans in February.